Heart of the Dragon
by Kingston Ryan
Summary: With a new Omnic crisis on the rise, the Overwatch team gathers at Hanamura to discuss their plan after losing much of the Western world in an ambush. While they all camp at the temple, Hanzo is having trouble reconciling with that fact that Winston is making him train the latest Overwatch initiate, a girl he finds suspicious. But maybe there's more to everyone than meets the eye.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Hanzo? Are you here?"

Hanzo opened his eyes at the sound of Winston's unmistakable booming voice through the thin, rice-paper walls of Hanamura. For a fleeting moment he regretted allowing his fellow heroes to stay here for their upcoming mission briefing, as the area was sacred to him. However, he knew it was for the best; with the recent Omnic uprising in the west, Hanamura was a safe place for them to regroup.

"Yes Winston," He said, suppressing his sigh. He knew his voice would carry across the temple's floor easily. There was no need to shout.

When there came no reply, Hanzo got to his feet from where he'd been kneeling on the floor meditating and slid his bedroom door open. Well, what had been converted into bedrooms thanks to the entire Overwatch team staying in the building. He crossed the floor soundlessly, his bare feet gliding smoothly over the wood boards. He could hear Winston's voice in the main temple area, as well as a female voice he didn't recognize. His eyebrows furrowed. What was Winston doing bringing strangers into this place?

"Ah, there you are," Winston greeted him with a signature toothy grin. Hanzo gave him a curt nod and inclined his head, trying to see whoever Winston was blocking with his enormous frame. The gorilla caught on and put his hand up. "Relax. There's someone I'd like you to meet."

"I am relaxed," Hanzo answered, though he could already feel himself growing tense.

"This," Winston turned his body to reveal the woman standing just behind him. "Is Harley Turner."

Hanzo studied her quickly. Her head was a shock of orange hair that messily fell into her bright blue eyes and was chopped asymmetrically around her shoulders. She looked to be around 's age, though it was hard to tell just at a glance. All her clothing – a long-sleeved shirt that exposed her midriff, a pleated skirt and knee-high boots – was black, but underneath it she wore a fishnet body suit that was a pale grey. Her plump pink lips were curled up in a smile. Hanzo cocked an eyebrow at Winston.

"Why is she here?" He was not about to waste time with pleasantries when they had a mission to prepare for and they were stepping on his sacred ground. Winston shot him a disapproving look, which he ignored. The girl's smile faded a little.

"She is a new Overwatch initiate," Winston said, his tone reflecting his annoyance. "She was just flown over from Ireland – it was a mess getting her here. She's had a rough time and could use a little relaxation before the briefing tomorrow. I was hoping, since this is basically your home, that you would take some time to show her around the gardens and temples."

Hanzo fought the urge to turn on his heel and simply walk away. He couldn't believe Winston was asking him to do such a thing. Still, he would be diplomatic about his refusal.

"I doubt I am the best choice for this," He gave Winston a purposeful look. "Perhaps Mercy…"

"She's busy."

"Or Mei…"

"Busy with Mercy."

"Lucio then…"

"Gaming with Dva."

Hanzo sighed. "My brother is also familiar…"

"You've got to be kidding," Winston reached over and placed a heavy hand on his shoulder, switching to a very quiet voice. "Don't be rude. Now, please, show her around."

"Very well," Hanzo said, struggling to keep his tone even. He watched Winston turn back to Harley, give her a long hug, and then walk outside, leaving the two of them alone. Hanzo was still for a moment, centering himself. He was incredulous that he had been stuck with what was effectively babysitting, but he didn't want to cause trouble with someone he would have to work with in the future.

"It is a pleasure to meet you," He said, bowing slightly without taking his eyes off of her. With his evening now occupied, the pleasantries were more justifiable. This action seemed to put her at ease, and she stuck her hand out in kind.

"Harley Turner!"

Hanzo eyed her outstretched hand for a long moment before taking it for a quick shake. Her pale skin was soft but he typically distrusted touching anybody if it wasn't in a fight.

"Hanzo Shimada," He responded, though it was likely she'd been told everyone's names before her arrival. It seemed suspicious to him that Overwatch would choose to bring in a new initiate at this point in time, so he would be careful about what information he personally doled out, but the Shimada name was well-known far and wide. He was no secret.

"This temple is beautiful," She said, spinning on the spot, eyes looking in all directions before coming to rest on the painting of the two dragons just above the shrine. "Oh my god…"

"That painting is very old," He glanced up at it and his chest felt tight. He looked away almost instantly, turning his back on both it and Harley. He couldn't see her reaction, but she must have sensed his discomfort because she immediately changed the subject.

"Do you think we could go outside? Those blossoms look lovely in the moonlight."

"After you."

Hanzo didn't feel the need to put his sandals on. The grass would be cool on his feet. As he followed Harley out of the temple he checked his surroundings as always. He wondered if Winston had brought any more surprise visitors and felt irritated again; there were preparations to make and he was strolling through the garden like everything was peaceful.

"What are these trees called?" She asked, spinning to face him.

"Sakura."

"I wish we had them in Ireland," She lifted her thin fingers up to a particularly large blossom. Hanzo felt himself jerk forward to stop her, thinking she was going to pick the bloom from its branch, but she simply stroked the petals and withdrew. He steadied himself and pretended to examine the tree, even though he could see her looking at him sideways.

"You are from Ireland, but you do not have an Irish accent," He paused. "Nor do you have an Irish-sounding name." He didn't exactly pose a question, but he found it suspect. Part of him didn't want to be so distrustful, but he'd learned his lesson the hard way too many times.

"You've never heard me talk to my mom and dad," She spoke cheerily. If she noticed him being prickly she made no show of it. "When I started training to become a part of Overwatch I decided to change my name, and began forcefully suppressing my accent. I thought it would make me… I don't know, more secret. It would make my roots harder to trace. But now I meet you, and Tracer, and Mei, and you all seem so proud of your heritage… it makes me wish, sometimes, that I hadn't tried so hard to erase mine."

"Clearly you don't know much about my history if you think I am proud of my heritage."

Harley looked at him with big eyes. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean…"

"Never mind," Hanzo gestured towards a bridge a little ways ahead of them. "There is another, more ornate temple that way, if you are interested."

"Yes please!" Harley smiled again.

Hanzo tried to keep his mind clear. The easiest way to go about this would be to simply complete the task at hand and not dwell on the wasted time. Frustration and annoyance would get him nowhere; he had to keep reminding himself of that. Genji had shown him a lot about moving past things he could not change, but it was still a struggle to fight his fiery nature.

Harley was quiet – perhaps awestricken – when they entered the temple. It was decorated in gold and jade and held many beautiful, priceless pieces of art. Vases lined the walls and the shrine area was completely encrusted with gems from all over the world. Hanzo watched her wander, lingering by an ornamental statue of a samurai his father had stolen from some rich man he had been hired to kill. In his distraction he barely noticed when one of Harley' large platform boots caught on a loose floorboard and she began to lose her balance. She flailed, trying to straighten herself, but she was past the tipping point and headed directly for a tall vase that had once belonged to the imperial family. With lightning speed Hanzo dashed towards her and grabbed her by the wrist, yanking her away from the vase and back into a standing position.

"You are an Overwatch initiate?" He spat, unable to control the venom in his words. "You are a clumsy child. I am sending you back to Winston – my duties do not include babysitting."

He released the tight grip on her wrist. She stammered for a moment and then flew towards the door, hovering a few inches above the floor. So that was one of her abilities. When she reached the entrance she briefly stopped, still hovering, and turned back to him.

"I'm sorry," Her voice was quiet. "I was distracted. It won't happen again." With those words, she disappeared from the temple. Hanzo took several deep breaths to calm his spirit. He had just been telling himself not to allow that fire within him to burn so brightly, but her incompetence set him off like a gunshot. He wondered what Winston would have to say about their interaction… He wondered what Harley would tell him.

 _It's not my concern_ , he told himself, starting back for the large temple where all the bedrooms had been set up. He imagined that by this time, most of the other heroes would be making their way to bed, and hoped no one else would disturb him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

When Hanzo entered the cargo bay of Winston's shuttle, which had been rearranged to emulate a meeting room, he immediately felt a few sets of eyes on him. He ignored them easily. Even if the incident from last night had gotten back to everyone, there was no possible defense they could make against his actions. He had told Winston right away not to leave the girl with him and he had been pressed into a job he was ill-suited for.

It appeared that not everyone was present, so the heroes that had already arrived were simply milling about the room, socializing, rather than sitting at the makeshift table. Hanzo identified who was already there: Winston, Mei, Mercy, Genji, Pharah, Symmetra, Jack and McCree, who was talking to Harley. Absent were DVa, Lucio, Tracer, Zenyatta, Zarya, Reinhardt and Torbjorn. He wondered why so many of his allies would not be there for this extremely important meeting; particularly Reinhardt and Zenyatta, who were never late or missing for anything. Hanzo eyed the mismatched chairs crowded around the table and narrowly avoided making a face. He preferred to kneel, or crouch. Chairs were so restricting.

He noticed Winston excuse himself from speaking with Mercy and head in his direction. Hanzo stifled a sigh, as he was certain he knew what Winston was going to say.

"What is the matter with you?" Winston's angry-whisper was exactly what Hanzo had been expecting, and he simply stared back at the scientist unresponsively. Winston was asking a question he already knew the answer to and was wasting everyone's time. He was clearly agitated by the lack of Hanzo's reply and made an aggressive huffing noise. Hanzo folded his arms across his chest.

"She is distractible and clumsy," He told the gorilla-man. "I am uncertain how she was even approved to come here, considering the circumstances."

"Do you not think that we rigidly considered who to bring here for this particular meeting? Do you think we would have risked bringing her here if we didn't need her right here, right now? She wouldn't tell me exactly what happened last night and I'm not entirely convinced I need to know, but you must start considering us – all of us – your teammates, and stop operating as a lone wolf."

Hanzo opened his mouth to retort but Winston furrowed his eyebrows and he instead simply let out a long stream of air through his nose and nodded once. Seemingly satisfied that his acknowledgement was enough of an approval of their discussion, Winston turned around and gestured for everyone to take a seat.

Hanzo begrudgingly took a seat at the far end of the table and watched his brother do the same directly across from him. Both Shimada brothers fidgeted slightly, trying to get comfortable: Hanzo settled on sitting cross-legged on the chair while his brother suddenly became very still and then appeared to relax. Then again, it was difficult to tell exactly how relaxed he was underneath his suit, and his cyborg parts were presumably able to be readjusted as necessary. Hanzo guessed Genji's aversion to chairs was more memory-based than actual discomfort, but it gave him some peace of mind knowing that his brother still retained even the smaller things that made him human.

Winston stood at the head of the table – the opposite end of where Hanzo was seated – as his huge frame could not be accommodated by normal chairs. Harley took the seat immediately to his right, and McCree sat next to her. They were still deep in conversation, and Hanzo watched out of the corner of his eye as she giggled and tugged nervously on a longer strand of her hair. Subtly, he shook his head in disapproval. Genji inclined his masked face towards them as well, apparently having noticed Hanzo's reaction. It was obviously impossible to tell if he thought anything of the situation with his head completely covered, but Hanzo sensed his brother also had some disdain and suspicion for the new recruit. This gave him some satisfaction.

"You may have noticed not everyone is here today," Winston began after everyone else had taken their seats. "I probably should have mentioned this, but I have asked Reinhardt, Torbjorn and Zarya to take up training new recruits in Moscow. The eastern side of Europe has remained mostly untouched by this new Omnic crisis and we'll need as many trained bodies as possible over there in the event that changes. Zenyatta is hosting peace conferences with the Omnic resistance in Nepal."

"Where are Hana and Lucio?" Pharah asked loudly. "I saw them here last night."

"And Lena," Jack growled. "You'd think a girl who exists outside of time would actually be on time once in a while."

"Yes, well…" Winston adjusted his glasses. "I didn't want to delay the meeting any longer. They can catch up whenever they get here."

As if on cue, Hanzo's ears perked with the sound of footsteps on the stone pathway outside. His legs shot out from under him as he turned quickly in his chair, braced for an ambush. However, as the footfalls drew nearer, it was apparent they were slow and dragging. Two sets of steps, in fact, both equally lethargic. He could easily guess who was coming in.

Lucio and DVa appeared in the doorway. They both appeared to be dressed in pajamas: Lucio in baggy sweatpants and a loose t-shirt, DVa in shorts and a tank top. rubbed her eyes and yawned without covering her mouth. Hanzo felt his mouth tighten at their behavior as they casually sauntered in and sat down at his diagonal, beside Genji.

"Nice of you to join us," Jack muttered from behind his mask. Hanzo watched Mercy nudge him in the ribs with her elbow. He turned to face her, and then quickly turned back to the table.

"Sorry all, up too late gaming," DVa leaned her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her fists. The posture she took pushed her breasts together and combined with her tank top it made for a very sexual sight. Hanzo immediately averted his eyes. She was far too young for him to think about that way. He didn't want to think about anyone that way. It brought discord to the spirit.

His attention was then turned on Harley and McCree, who had obviously taken advantage of the distraction brought by the tardy heroes to reengage their talk. He narrowed his eyes, still feeling a great deal of uncertainty about Harley. At least, he thought that was what it was. Something about the way she smiled so innocently and acted so carefree made him uneasy. This was a time of war, a time to be serious about the matters at hand, and Winston had brought in a young woman who was apparently more concerned with batting her eyelashes at a cowboy than paying attention to the meeting? He exhaled loudly through his nose.

"Ahem," Winston's booming voice had everyone fall silent. "By now, many of you have already met our newest initiate, Harley Turner. Or, if you want to address her on the battlefield, you can call her by her designated codename: Blackout."

"Blackout?" Mei repeated. "Sounds scary to me!"

Harley smiled with all her teeth. "Don't worry, it will only be scary for our enemies."

"What does it mean?" Mercy asked.

"Well…" Harley looked up at Winston with an unsure look on her face, but he nodded so she continued speaking. "I can use magnetic fields to disrupt people's sight, leaving them temporarily blind. So I thought it would be an appropriate name…"

Hanzo watched the room devolve into quiet murmuring until Winston thudded gently on the table to recapture everyone's attention. He had to admit it was an interesting ability, though he wasn't sure it explained how she was hovering earlier. Also, it seemed like quite a skill – being able to inflict blindness on your enemies, even for a second, could be a crucial moment between life and death. His own abilities would be useless without perfect and consistent vision. It made him wary.

"Disrupting magnetic fields will come in very useful if it comes to an open battle with the Omnics," Symmetra spoke once everyone had stopped whispering. "However it poses a substantial risk to our own equipment… and our Omnics."

It suddenly became apparent to Hanzo that perhaps Zenyatta and Bastion's absences were not simply a coincidence. Hanzo thought back to how easily Harley had tripped and nearly fallen; what if she couldn't properly control where her field was? What if an ally was caught in her crosshairs? He could see that even Symmetra, who simply worked with machines, was stressed over this new information. He couldn't imagine the reaction of the machines themselves.

"It's a very concentrated burst," Harley's tone had changed from lighthearted to serious, which was a welcome change of attitude. "I've been toying with using it as an area effect, but at the moment it's very directional. I wouldn't want to harm someone or screw up allied technology."

"How does it work?" Symmetra pressed, her eyebrows furrowed.

Harley suddenly looked very uncomfortable. "Well… I…"

"Perhaps we should begin the mission briefing," Winston abruptly cut in, motioning for Harley to sit down again. "I'm sure everyone will have plenty of time to acquaint themselves with Ms. Turner here over the next little while as we train up and prepare ourselves for what will probably be a long and bumpy ride."

Hanzo tuned out Winston's words after that, certain he'd heard everything he had to say before and instead chose to focus on the discomfort Harley portrayed upon being asked about her powers. It seemed that there was something she wasn't telling the group that Winston was aware of, but why would he hide it? Winston had always been the first to share information and had never been less than honest with any of the heroes. Now suddenly he was hiding something from all of them, in the interest of protecting someone new, who none of them were even sure they could trust? Hanzo knew that everyone had some darkness in their past – he knew perhaps better than anyone, save for Amelie, but she was gone now – but opening yourself to face those moments of darkness was the first step towards healing and growing close as a team. If this Harley girl wanted to be trusted and integrated into the group, she would need to learn not to hide in the shadows, as he had.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The meeting had lasted far too long for Hanzo's liking, which was par for the course when Winston was presenting, and also when so many people were throwing their opinion around. Even Genji, who had learned a great deal of patience, was flexing his fingers and wrists near the end of the briefing, obviously itching to get some exercise. Sitting still in chairs had never been the Shimada brothers' strong suit.

Things finally drew to a stop when Mercy told everyone, in her most serious voice, that simply using Harley's abilities to shut down or fry the brain circuits of the Omnics was not an option – period. Hanzo had sneered at her when she suggested they take a break and regroup, because obviously there were too many polarizing opinions and everyone needed some time to cool down. All that meant was that everyone was going to relax and when they came back it would start all over again from the beginning. While Hanzo admittedly did want to leave the meeting room, he wanted to do so with a plan, not to hang around uselessly for another day. Still, everyone agreed to the adjournment so he didn't have much of a choice. Everyone slowly dispersed from the shuttle, and as Hanzo made his way towards the exit to do the same, he felt Winston's heavy hand grasp his shoulder.

"Don't tell me," Hanzo turned to face him. "You want to give me another chance?"

"Nope," Winston adjusted his glasses in an attempt to hide a grin, but Hanzo knew all his tics. "I let Symmetra take Harley for today, since she's very serious about making sure the two of them can work together without anyone's safety or equipment being jeopardized."

"What then?"

"I'm not going to punish you if that's what you think. You're not a child."

Hanzo flattened his lips into a line. "I know I am not a child."

"Of course," Winston rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I thought I'd let you know that I made sure to put you on border patrol for now. And since you'll be on patrol… you won't be available to come to the meeting when we resume later. Alright?"

There was a moment of silence between them. Hanzo could feel the corner of his lip turning up and fought the urge. Even when he managed to displease Winston, the gorilla-man could never stay mad at him for long. Patrol was the best job in Hanzo's mind; long hours of silence and solitude for reflection, and it made the best use of his keen eyes and pinpoint accuracy. Nobody would ever sneak into Hanamura on his watch.

"Well?" Winston finally prompted with a grin.

"Thank you," Hanzo said, still trying to pretend he wasn't happy about the decision. He wasn't about to give Winston the satisfaction of knowing how grateful he was. Not just yet. Not after making him attempt to babysit the latest recruit. And speaking of whom…

"Where are Ms. Turner and Symmetra working?"

Winston gave him a confused look. "Why…?"

"If anything happens, I need to know where everyone is."

"What are you talking about?" All the glee had disappeared from Winston's face. "If anything bad happens we'll all be on alert. You should just focus on protecting the premises."

Hanzo contemplated trying to explain his suspicions about Harley, but he figured that he had to first attempt to trust Winston's judgment. So far the only truly strange thing she'd done had been showing up at a very important time, and acting a little clumsy in the temple. He took a deep breath and tried to tell himself that those things weren't enough to make an assessment. And still something bothered him… He reflected on the way she'd gone quiet when Symmetra asked her to explain the way her powers worked. Maybe his patrol would lead him to wherever they were working and he could find out for himself.

"It's nothing," Hanzo finally said. "I'll begin my patrol now."

After leaving the shuttle, the first thing he did was scale the nearest wall that kept Hanamura gated. The wood felt good under his palms, his fingers gripping each knot and crack without a moment of hesitation. Hanzo knew every inch of these walls and rooftops like they were a part of his very body. It filled him with peace and a new kind of energy when he finally pulled himself up onto the awning and stood at the edge of it, looking out over the cluster of temples. The sun was high in the sky and beat welcome warmth onto his face and the one shoulder that went uncovered. He closed his eyes for just a second, breathing in the peaceful air of his home.

 _I mustn't waste time_ , he thought to himself after a few breaths, and began his patrol. He moved completely soundlessly on the shingles, not stirring a single leaf that had settled there after blowing away from the trees. In being so silent, he would be able to observe almost everyone he passed without them noticing his presence.

The first temple he peered into was the smallest one, nearest the gate. Genji was sitting on the floor in front of several lit candles. He wasted no time letting Hanzo know he knew he was nearby by lifting his head from its bowed position and tilting it in his brother's direction. Hanzo couldn't help but allow the corner of his lip to turn upwards in a half-smile. He'd known he could never sneak past Genji, but it was nice to have the proof. It solidified that they were regaining the bond they'd once lost. When Genji bowed his head again, Hanzo moved along.

As he approached the next building, he could already hear voices from within it. He quietly swung himself down from the roof to the ledge of a high window, and looked down at the scene below. It looked like Mei had made a pot of tea, and was handing cups of it to Mercy, Pharah, DVa and Lucio. They were all smiling and laughing and chattering happily like nothing was wrong. Hanzo wondered how they were able to be so lighthearted about everything. Perhaps he could understand Lucio and DVa; young and unburdened with the pain of experience, it was possible that they still saw more light than darkness when a crisis rained down around them. Still, they'd seen enough battle to know the Omnics weren't to be underestimated. He watched them for longer than he'd intended to. Even Pharah, who was a ferocious leader, seemed to have let go of her sense of seriousness for the moment. It made him question how well he really knew any of them anymore. Halfway around the world war was raging and they were there to figure out the best way to stop it. What was this other behavior accomplishing? He quickly reached up, pulled himself back up onto the roof and continued moving. The feeling of frustration was already filling him again and he knew he needed to find his center to stay focused.

It wasn't too much further that he spotted Jack and McCree talking quietly under the cover of a tree. He could easily see the smoke from McCree's cigar wafting through the branches, and the dim glow of Jack's visor was never to be missed. As Hanzo suspected, the moment he stepped close enough to be within earshot of their low murmuring, Jack leaned out from under the tree and looked straight up at him. McCree followed his line of sight and tipped his hat at Hanzo. Jack nodded and then resumed his previous posture. They went back to talking and Hanzo moved on, trying to ignore the desire to ridicule McCree every time he saw him for that ludicrous hat and belt he insisted on wearing.

Finally Hanzo approached the biggest temple, where everyone was staying. To his delight, he could hear Symmetra's voice from within, though it was difficult to hear her from outside. Fortunately, the large temple had beams that ran all the way across the main area in both directions, so once he entered through a window he'd be able to sit above them to find out exactly what was going on with Harley and her abilities.

He perched on the window ledge and was about to make his way to the center of the room via the high beams when something stopped him. It was the sight ahead of him.

Harley was sitting close to the altar; her back was pressed up against the wall, her knees were pulled up, her arms were folded across her legs and her head was down. Thanks to his incredibly sharp sense of hearing, the moment Symmetra stopped speaking Hanzo could hear soft, quiet sobs from Harley. _She's… crying? But… why_?

He forced himself to move forward, using both his hands and feet to cross the beam quickly. He stopped and crouched almost immediately over top of them. Neither of the women seemed to notice his presence.

Harley lifted her head and a strange feeling pressed heavily against Hanzo's chest. Her face was wet, glistening with fresh tears. Her bottom lip was quivering. Her bright blue eyes looked dull. Even though he'd only known her a day, it seemed bizarre that she'd change tones so suddenly, and it made Hanzo feel… something he couldn't quite identify. It wasn't exactly pity.

"It's alright," Symmetra, who was kneeling beside Harley, said with a reassuring tone. "No one is going to think any less of you because of your power. I know these people. Some of them may be strange but Overwatch is a family and has a capacity for love and understanding that I never knew possible until I saw how they accepted everyone we ever initiated into the program, no matter where they came from."

"But… but…" Harley's voice was shaking. It made Hanzo feel uncomfortable. "Last night…"

"What DID happen last night?"

"Well…"

Harley looked away from Symmetra, obviously stalling. Hanzo felt an unpleasant tug at the back of his mind. While he still believed being harsh with her was the right course of action – she'd have to be tough and observant if she was going to be any use to the team – there was still something about her demeanor that made him feel… bad.

"You can tell me," Symmetra touched her shoulder gently. "I won't even tell Winston."

The redhead turned her head upwards again, new tears brimming in her eyes. "I tripped in the temple over there, when Hanzo was showing me around. I almost broke a really beautiful vase."

"But you didn't."

"No. Hanzo caught me. And then…"

Hanzo's stomach churned as he awaited her next words. This was unlike any sensation he'd ever experienced before. It was unlike the pain and grief he felt over Genji all those years ago. That was more concrete: a choice was made and redemption was necessary. Back then, a path to restoring his honor was clear. This new feeling was volatile and new. He actually had to reach a hand down to the beam to steady himself.

"Then what?" Symmetra prodded.

"He yelled at me. And I deserved it. I could have destroyed something really important, and that wasn't even on a battlefield!"

"And this was all because of the…"

"Yes."

 _The what?_ Hanzo's mind screamed to know, but it seemed Harley and Symmetra had already discussed what it was, and the way Harley cut off the sentence abruptly suggested she didn't want to repeat herself in the moment. He suspected, however, that whatever it was that was apparently the cause of Harley's clumsiness might also be the cause of his suspicious feelings toward her. He'd have to figure it out later though, he'd already been here long enough as it was.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Hanzo awoke with the sunrise but lay in bed for much longer than he normally did. He couldn't stop reflecting on the events of the previous night. The image of Harley's face, blue eyes brimmed with tears, was burned into his mind, and had distracted him the rest of the night. He could barely remember the rest of his patrol after he'd left the temple, and that was a problem. Nothing normally distracted him like that.

He shifted under his blanket, suddenly feeling too warm. _Steady your mind, ground yourself_ , he thought to himself, glancing around his room to remind himself just where he was, who he was, and why he was here. His bow rested by the foot of his mattress on the floor, with his quiver carefully leaned up against the wall next to it. The one-armed kimono he always wore was neatly folded on the small table in the opposite corner of the tiny room, and his armored boots stood next to it. All these things symbolized his mission: the one here and now, and the one he held himself accountable to every day since he renounced his birthright and the Shimada Empire. Finally, he looked down at his dragon tattoo and a feeling of serenity washed over him. After a few long and deep breaths, he felt much calmer, and didn't feel the heat in his cheeks anymore.

There was a quiet knock on the wood paneling to the side of the sliding rice paper door. Embarrassed that he hadn't been up with the sun as usual, he leapt out of bed and hurried to the door in his bare feet, not even considering that he was shirtless and was only wearing a light pair of pants, nor that his hair hadn't been tied back yet and hung loosely around his face.

"Oh!" Harley's shocked face greeted him as he pushed the door open. "I'm sorry, did I wake you up?"

"No," Hanzo became very aware of his loose hair and turned away from the doorway to find the tie he used to keep it up. As he picked the tie up off the table and quickly pulled his hair back, he could feel Harley's eyes on him. He glanced over his shoulder at her to let her know he was aware, and locked eyes with her. His mind was flooded with the memory of her quiet sobs and quivering lip from the night before, and he felt a pang in his chest. _Stop it, find your centre_.

"Was there… something you needed?" He finally asked when she didn't say anything, turning back to face her. Without much discretion her eyes flickered down to his bare chest, then over to his shoulder and arm that was tattooed, and then back to his face.

"Yes, I'm sorry," She apologized again, shaking her mop of orange hair. "Winston told me I'm training with you today."

"Did he…"

Her expression became uneasy. "Yeah, he said you were the best person to train me to fight at long distances. I mean, he muttered something about someone named Amelie, but I didn't quite catch it. Anyway, he told me you usually get up at the crack of dawn and that it would be better if we could get some work done before everyone else is awake."

Hanzo held back the sigh that threatened to leave his throat and merely nodded. He could tell Harley wasn't exactly pleased about this news either. Still, if she was going to be trained to use her abilities at a distance, he was the best person at the camp to do so, and he'd rather she be trained properly then not at all even if it meant things would be a little uncomfortable between them. He told himself he wouldn't explode at her again… well, unless she did something extremely foolish.

Without speaking he grabbed his kimono and slipped into it in one graceful motion, then stepped into his boots and fixed his mechanical glove onto his hand. He could feel her eyes following every step and he gathered his bow and arrows. Why is she watching me so carefully? He wondered, but tried to push the thought from his mind. If they were to train together, it was likely he would finally learn what was going on behind her abilities, and why they had upset her so much the night before. In spite of the armor now on his feet, he still moved silently across the floor and gestured for Harley to follow him outside. They left from the back of the temple so as not to disturb anyone else.

They fell into pace side by side as they crossed the courtyard. Hanzo was aware that Harley kept looking at him sideways, then at the ground, then up at him, then back down. Finally, she spoke.

"I wanted to apologize again for…"

"There is no need," Hanzo lifted his hand to signal her to stop talking. "It is forgiven."

"Oh… well that's good," The hint of a smile played on her lips. "Thank you."

Hanzo bit down on his tongue as he contemplated his next words. He knew that Winston and Mercy would likely not approve of his continued hostility towards her, and if they were going to work together, he supposed he should make amends until there was more credence to his suspicions. After all, it was the honorable thing to do.

"I…" Hanzo hesitated, internally scolding himself for doing so. "I'm sorry as well."

"What?" Harley actually stopped walking, looking at him in shock.

"The way I behaved was not appropriate," He explained without stopping, forcing her to jog a few steps to catch up. "It was a simple mistake and nothing more. I can be very… volatile, here in Hanamura. There is a great deal of comfort, but there is also a great deal of pain, when I stay within these walls."

"Oh no, really, it was my fault," She came up beside him again. "And I know all about feeling that kind of pain, believe me."

"Do you?" Hanzo's words came out a little sharper than he meant them to, but at the same time she was speaking about something he wasn't sure she understood. Unless she too had murdered a sibling and then found out he had changed into something not quite human… No matter how he loved his brother, and no matter how Genji had forgiven him, he was certain there would forever be an everlasting ache in his heart whenever he looked upon his brother's robotic body.

"Well… I mean… It's just…" Harley was stammering. He placed a hand on her shoulder, determined not to let his feelings rule him.

"Never mind," He gestured at a high wall – the outermost wall that protected Hanamura from the back – that had a wide ledge running its length for effective patrolling. "Let us focus on training now. Can you climb?"

Harley smirked knowingly. "I don't need to."

Before Hanzo could ask what she meant, Harley let her arms hang down by her sides and slowly lifted from the ground. He'd seen her hover the first night they met, but this looked like she was riding an invisible elevator all the way to the top of the wall. He hurried to climb the wall, scaling it fast enough that he was able to meet her on the ledge. He examined her outfit once more: she had no booster pack, no mechanical armor… nothing at all that would indicate she could fly. She must have noticed his bewildered stare because she smiled.

"You have your powers, I have mine."

"Indeed…" Hanzo pulled his bow over his head from where it had been slung across his back but didn't nock an arrow right away. He couldn't contain his curiosity. "May I ask what exactly provides you with these abilities?"

Harley's smile faded. "It's… complicated."

Before he could press any further, Hanzo noticed a bit of movement from the temples. People were beginning to wake up and get on with their day, and they were losing valuable training time. He decided to put a pin in the topic and would bring it up again later, even though the mystery was agonizing. The ability to fly without any equipment was a game changer, never mind the other powers she possessed due to the magnetic fields.

"No matter then," He raised his bow. "I do not need to understand where your abilities came from to train you to use them effectively. Let me show you something. Look over there."

He took a quick moment to focus his concentration, then gazed out across the property of Hanamura before snatching one of his sonic arrows from the quiver and firing it between two of the temples. A sonic pulse created vibrations in the air; they were visible to his eye, though he was uncertain if Harley could see the disruption. What she could surely see were the outlines of their many teammates through the walls. The bodies gave off a warm, almost infra-red glow, making them easy to spot and track. Harley gasped at the sight.

"When fighting at a distance, it is very important you know where your enemies are. Always fight beside someone who can see them if you cannot," Hanzo looked down at her from the corner of his eye. "Do you know how your powers work at long ranges?"

"Honestly no," Harley answered, finally tearing her eyes away from the red outlines. "I haven't had much practice outside of a lab… that's sort of why I'm here, I guess."

"A lab?"

"I was an engineer before beginning the Overwatch initiate program," She explained, her voice more quiet than usual. "I was a bit of a workaholic. I could spend a few days straight in the lab and barely notice. When I first started the program my powers were… unruly. They didn't want to risk anyone getting hurt accidentally so everything was tested in very safe, closed labs. When I finally got a good handle on everything they sent me here."

"I see…" Hanzo made a mental note of everything she'd said. Maybe the small bits of information he collected would help him piece together why he felt so uncertain about her. In fact, maybe it was best Winston was making them train together. He could keep an eye on her. "Well, since we don't want to blind any of our teammates, can you tell me what other powers you possess?"

Harley smiled a toothy grin. "I can make the ground shake!"

"Perhaps that should wait," Hanzo thought about all the delicate and fragile items inside the temples they stood above. "What else?"

"I can manipulate the magnetic field around someone so they float for a few seconds?"

"Perfect. Show me."

Harley seemed to be focusing on the outline of the figure that was distinctly Jack, who was walking through the main area of the largest temple. Hanzo watched as he stopped moving suddenly, and then, when Harley raised her hand up, his feet swung out from under him and he floated about two feet off the ground for a few moments. When she lowered her hand, he fell gently – but not gracefully – onto the floor. Even though the wooden walls, Jack's cursing was clear.

"Oops," Harley covered her mouth, obviously hiding a smile.

"Maybe that was not the best test…" Hanzo said, though even he had to admit it was a little bit funny. He hoped Jack didn't peer outside and notice them though; he wouldn't even really know how to address that one. "Although, it does seem you have fairly good control of your abilities. Perhaps we can figure out a way to test your other abilities on… someone else."

"He's not going to be mad at me, is he?"

Hanzo opened his mouth to reply, but the words caught in his throat. There was something about the way Harley was biting down on her lower lip, struggling to keep from giggling, and wringing her wrists that made her seem so approachable. Her lightheartedness was surprising, but there was something almost infectious about it. She nervously pushed her hair behind both ears, looking up at Hanzo with her bright blue eyes.

Finally Hanzo found his words. "He might be… if he finds out it was you."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"So? How was the training?" Winston asked when Hanzo and Harley entered the shuttle's meeting room, which had been set up for breakfast. Hanzo noticed there was a great deal of reservation in his voice, like he had expected it to go badly. It annoyed him slightly; after all, Winston should know that he of all people was capable of being professional and overcoming troubles when it was called for. Besides, with his suspicions still not completely alleviated, training with Harley made it easy for him to keep track of her, and find out more about her past. At least this morning she hadn't shown any signs of her previous clumsiness.

"It was great!" Harley answered first in her chipper tone. "I didn't get to test my abilities too much since they're pretty disruptive…"

Hanzo noticed her glance over at Jack, who was sitting at the table looking grumpy while Mercy cheerfully served him a large cup of coffee. He had to suppress the urge to smile a little, remembering his loud cursing as Harley lifted him off the ground. Luckily he managed to fight it and stepped into the conversation with Winston.

"I showed her how to use vantage points, how to target and how to make use of the sonic arrows," He explained. "It was fairly basic training."

"Well that's good to hear," Winston seemed relieved, though he shot Hanzo an unusual look that he chose to ignore. "I'm sure you'll find the time to go a little more in depth, and hopefully we can provide you with a way to explore your powers more thoroughly. But for now, come join us for breakfast."

Hanzo watched from the doorway as Winston turned back to the table, scooping an entire jar of peanut butter up in one hand and a banana in the other. Harley followed him towards the table. Mercy had moved onto serving Mei and Pharah their coffee. Genji wouldn't be here; his eating habits had altered after his modifications, and he never liked eating with large groups in the first place. DVa and Lucio were also absent yet again, obviously more concerned with sleep than with eating. Maybe Harley was older – or at least more mature – than she appeared, since even though she looked DVa's age, she seemed to have no trouble rising early to work. Symmetra walked by Hanzo on her way to the table holding a plate of toast. As she passed him, she looked him sternly in the face.

"I see you're finally giving that poor girl a break."

"What do you mean?" Hanzo replied evenly, trying not to give away what he'd witnessed the day before.

"All I'm saying is: use the patience you have worked hard to maintain," With a knowing smirk, she lifted the plate she was holding up towards him. "Toast?"

"No, thank you," Hanzo, like his brother, was not a fan of group meals. All he really wanted was a cup of tea, but he didn't feel like bothering anyone to find a kettle. There was a small stove at the back of the largest temple, along with his father's favorite teapot, where he could make it in peace. He turned to leave the shuttle and nearly collided with McCree, who was just coming inside. The cowboy tipped his hat as Hanzo twisted his body and smoothly evaded him.

"Jesse!" Harley's voice loudly carried over the soft murmur of the rest of the group.

Hanzo felt his eyebrows go up at her greeting. _Jesse? Nobody around here calls him that. He doesn't even introduce himself to anyone as that_. He paused just outside the entrance and watched Harley spring out of her seat, excitedly wave at McCree and gesture to the empty chair beside her. McCree had a broad smile on his face as he sauntered over to her and sat down. They immediately began talking.

He must have lingered too long looking at them with a perplexed expression on his face because he didn't notice Symmetra still standing near the doorway as well, following his line of sight. She let out a small chuckle that made him snap out of it.

"You wouldn't expect an engineer to get on so well with a bandit," She said to Hanzo quietly, still smirking. "And yet here we are."

"Indeed…" Hanzo thought back to the previous morning when Harley had been sitting next to McCree at the briefing table, giggling with him. He wondered when, with all the preparations they'd all have to do – as well as all the training Harley would need to get caught up on – the two of them had time to get to know each other. He watched as McCree picked up an apple and handed it to her; their fingers touched in the exchange, and Harley dropped the apple suddenly, laughing and turning pink in the cheeks. Hanzo furrowed his eyebrows at their interaction.

"Would you relax?" Symmetra nudged him with her elbow and he glared at her.

"It is unprofessional."

"It's human," She corrected, finally walking away from him.

Hanzo left the shuttle in a huff, walking quickly across the courtyard and through the gardens toward the large temple. He felt extremely agitated by Symmetra's words. His heart rate had quickened, he was breathing through his mouth and his face felt hot. She hadn't even really said anything of substance and yet he was so worked up.

He made his way inside the temple and towards the back room, where the modest kitchen was set up. As he neared the door he heard the sound of a familiar voice inside, and soon rounded the corner to discover Genji sitting on a mat on the floor, meditating. He was speaking in a language Hanzo didn't understand.

"You are troubled, brother," Genji's voice, with its distinct robotic overtone, came from behind his mask. Hanzo ignored him and snatched the teapot off the counter, filled it with water and set it down on the old stove. When he turned on the element, a small flame erupted and then burned quietly. Genji remained seated, and when Hanzo looked back towards him, he gestured to the floor mat directly across from him. Hanzo let out a long sigh, but kneeled.

"Your spirit lacks harmony," Genji spoke softly once Hanzo was settled. "When you are so quick to anger, you damage no one but yourself."

"The only thing making me angry right now is you," Hanzo spat at his brother, frustrated by his presumptions.

Genji tilted his head, expression hidden by his mask. "If you insist."

"What makes you think you understand me so well?"

"You know the answer to that, Hanzo," Genji rested his hands on his knees. "Just because you choose to shut me out, fighting the bond we once shared, does not mean I've forgotten our past, nor does it mean I will not continue trying to regain it in the future."

"I don't fight our bond!" Hanzo got to his feet in frustration. "I am glad of the progress we've made!"

"Then listen to me," Genji stood up as well. "There is something inside you causing you a great deal of stress. Until you listen to it, understand it, and put it to rest, you will continue behaving poorly, and you will be unhappy."

Hanzo opened his mouth to reply but the water was boiling. Frankly, he was pleased with the distraction and busied himself by taking the teapot off the element and filling a small metal basket with tea leaves. Genji stood perfectly still, watching him work. He hadn't been lying when he said he was glad about the progress he'd made in reconnecting with his brother. What truly bothered him was how well Genji was able to tap into his feelings. He didn't want his younger brother knowing better than him. He placed the basket inside the teapot so the leaves would steep, and turned back to Genji.

"I'm sorry," He tried to say the words without sounding strained. He hated apologizing.

"There's no need for apologies, at least not to me."

Hanzo exhaled through his nose. "To who then? Myself I suppose?"

"Perhaps," Genji walked towards the door. "And perhaps also to whoever you have allowed to irritate your mind and soul."

"That makes no sense!" Hanzo's words came out louder than he meant them to. Genji paused in the doorway, looking over his shoulder. The slot in his visor shone bright green for a brief moment, and then returned to its normal soft green glow.

"Think on it."

Genji left the kitchen, leaving Hanzo to his tea. Hanzo closed his eyes for a long moment, trying to understand what his brother had been talking about. _I should apologize to whoever has irritated me? Why shouldn't they apologize_? It was then that Hanzo realized he didn't even know who he would ask for an apology. He considered Symmetra for a moment, but deep down, he knew it wasn't their brief interaction which had set off his mood. It was something else; a feeling stirring deep inside him, but he simply couldn't place it. He hoped the answer would come with time.


	6. Chapter 6

_(Note from the author: Hey everyone! Thanks so much for your continued readership. I'm sorry this chapter took longer to come out so I made it extra long for you! It's a little exposition-heavy, but things should clip along better next chapter. Thanks again!)_

 **Chapter 6**

Hanzo entered the shuttle yet again, annoyed that another meeting had been called. He had been looking forward to running some exercises with Pharah, but suddenly everything had been dropped in order to hold a meeting.

However, when he took a look at the faces of those already sitting around the table, he felt a pang of regret at his irritation. Mercy looked incredibly sad, though she was obviously trying to hide it by flittering around, asking the others if they needed anything. Mei looked sad and nervous. Jack and Pharah were speaking in the corner, both of them with a look of sheer anger plastered on their faces. Genji was expressionless behind his mask, but Hanzo could sense his brother was tense. Symmetra was holding her head in her hands. _Wait, where's Winston?_

DVa and Lucio walked in next; it seemed they were as unaware of the situation as Hanzo. DVa was absent-mindedly plucking chips from the bag she was holding and stuffing them into her mouth as Lucio excitedly talked to her about something to do with music. But once they noticed the tone of the room, both of them got very quiet and sat down at the table. DVa put the bag of chips on the table in front of her and wiped her hands on her jeans. It was strange seeing her out of the flight suit so much, but Hanzo supposed she wouldn't have any reason to wear it if she wasn't piloting. Lucio took off the headphones hanging around his neck and rested them in his lap.

Hanzo made his way to the table and took a seat next to his brother. Genji's head faced straight ahead; he didn't acknowledge Hanzo's presence but rather sat still like a statue. _Something must be very wrong here_.

"What's happened?" Hanzo asked. There came no reply. He wondered if perhaps Genji was annoyed with him for that morning; how he'd been so quick to anger when obviously his brother was trying to help him find harmony. Hanzo hoped that wasn't the case.

Before he could pry further, his attention was drawn to McCree and Harley coming through the shuttle's doors. They too seemed to have no idea what had come over everyone as they were both smiling when they came in. Not speaking, just smiling.

"Hey every… one…" Harley's greeting started out chipper but quickly faded to silence when she took a look around the room. Mercy gave her a half-hearted smile.

"What's going on in here?" McCree asked loudly. "Y'all have got longer faces than a pack of wild horses at a dried up watering hole."

When everyone just sort of looked up at him, that same dreary silence hanging thick in the air, McCree's face got very serious and he immediately broke away from Harley to talk to Jack and Pharah. Hanzo watched Harley look after him for a second, staring at his back, and then she walked over to the table and sat down beside Symmetra, who simply shook her head.

"If everyone could take a seat," Winston's booming voice came from behind Hanzo and he admittedly felt a little relief that the gorilla-man was alright. "We just received some… troubling… news."

As Winston took his place at the head of the table, Hanzo noticed that his eyes were dull and his shoulders were slumped. He wasn't his normal energetic, optimistic self at all. It should have come as no surprise, considering the mood of the room, but it was still so strange to see Winston looking and acting so differently. It was unnerving, and Hanzo felt his heart rate increase. He took a few long breaths to calm himself. After doing so, he noticed Genji incline his head towards him slightly, and once again felt relief that Genji wasn't angry after all, just deep in thought. Hanzo had to admit it was especially strange to see his brother like this. Ever since he'd come back from Nepal, he'd hardly ever gotten upset. Maybe the stillness and silence was how he expressed it now.

Jack and Pharah took the two empty seats immediately to Winston's left and McCree sat next to Harley. Hanzo watched him pull his chair out, but when he sat on it, he seemed to intentionally shift it so that he was much closer to Harley. Only a few inches separated them. Annoyed at their continued unprofessionalism, he returned his gaze to Winston, who looked like he was having trouble figuring out exactly how to tell them all what the bad news was. After a few uncomfortable moments of everyone looking his way, Jack aggressively stood up, knocking his chair over behind him in the process.

"Lena's been taken," He snarled.

"By who?" Lucio asked, his voice strained.

"Talon intercepted her plane when it touched down in Lijiang to drop off supplies. An agent got on board – without anyone noticing – and took over the flight. Redirected it somewhere in Omnic territory. We think North America."

"How did you find this information?" Hanzo asked, requiring a more complete version of events before he could start making a plan. He needed to start brainstorming in order to ignore the pit in his stomach over Lena's capture. She was always kind and friendly, maybe too much for him, but she had always done her best to be an advocate for peace and non-violence where it could be helped. Knowing what Talon had done to Amelie also played a factor in how serious this situation could become very quickly. They needed to act fast.

"There was a distress signal with a message encoded in it," Winston answered suddenly, his voice almost causing Hanzo to jump in his seat. "We think it came from the pilot… the message was a little garbled. Talon probably tried to jam the signal."

"And the agent on the plane," McCree's voice was quiet. "The message said he got on board without anyone seeing him?"

"Specifically…" Winston heaved a sigh. "It said that he 'just appeared'."

McCree slammed both hands down on the table hard enough that it shook several chips out of the bag in front of DVa. Jack turned around and kicked his overturned chair, sending it flying across the small room. Hanzo knew why the two of them were reacting this way, and based on their reactions, it was pretty obvious who the Talon agent was, as well as where Lena's plane had landed.

"They landed in North America," Hanzo offered. "They must be in Dorado." While Winston, Mercy and Mei all nodded sadly, McCree lifted his bowed head to stare Hanzo in the face, teeth clenched and eyes narrowed. It looked like the cowboy was going to say something, but thought better of it and instead quickly got to his feet. Unlike Jack, however, he managed to stand without knocking his chair over. Wordlessly he walked out of the shuttle bay, pulling out the cigar that had been tucked into his hat's band and lighting it just as he disappeared from view. Jack followed him out. Mercy was the next to her feet, obviously looking to follow them, but Winston put his hand up to stop her.

"What just happened?" Harley's voice trained Hanzo's attention on her. She looked completely bewildered and a little afraid, and he wondered if in all that flirting McCree had never found the time to explain the ghosts of his past.

"It's a bit of a long story," Mercy took her seat again, patting Winston on the shoulder as she did so. "Did they tell you, before you came here, about a man who goes by the name 'Reaper'?"

Harley lifted a hand to cover her mouth. "Oh my god…"

"Yes," Winston sighed. "If it was him on the plane, it may already be too late."

"Don't say that!" Symmetra abruptly sat upright, her eyes shimmering with the tears she was obviously trying to hold back.

"We need to remain calm," Pharah said with a stern voice. "We will need to send a rescue party after Lena, and we'll discuss that in a moment. Unfortunately… the news of Lena's disappearance, and the possible re-appearance of Reaper, is not the worst news we've had today."

Hanzo snapped his head away from Harley to look at Pharah. _There's more_? He felt his jaw muscles tighten. He felt out of the loop and helpless, not to mention annoyed at Jack and McCree for storming out at the mere mention of Reaper. He wondered what had happened to this team since they'd last disbanded; it felt like so much had changed in such a short time.

"The Omnic takeover that has consumed huge portions of the Western world," Pharah continued, her expression growing dark. "Is actually not Omnics at all."

"What?" Hanzo couldn't help the word slipping out of his mouth.

Lucio, who had been balancing on two legs of his chair, nearly toppled over. All the color drained out DVa's face. Hanzo couldn't help but glance over at Harley, whose eyes were wide and mouth still slightly agape. A few tears rolled down Symmetra's cheeks.

"There was another piece of the message," Winston's voice sounded choked, but he cleared his throat and continued. "It's incomplete, but there was enough to gather that the forces occupying so much of our world aren't really Omnics. They are… the citizens."

"Wh… What do you mean?" Harley asked weakly.

"Like Winston said, the message is incomplete," Pharah had stepped back in. "From what we were able to piece together, there's some kind of mass mind control being used on huge numbers of people. Apparently it hasn't affected everyone, but that's all we know."

"They're… people?" DVa asked, barely audible.

"Yes," Winston confirmed. "Now you all know why the situation is so dire."

"We need more information," Hanzo said, his voice a little louder than he intended. "We need to know exactly what we're facing. These scattered notes are not enough to make a new battle plan. We must go after Lena, and from there we can find out exactly what's happening. Provided she's safe, she may be able to tell us firsthand what's happening."

"Our thoughts exactly," Pharah nodded. "The rescue party will be assembled shortly."

"Party?" Hanzo felt a pit in his stomach. "We should work together to…"

"It's too risky," Winston cut him off, something Hanzo knew that Winston knew he hated. "We can't risk taking everyone along. If things are worse than we think, we'll need the rest of Overwatch to regroup. We just can't lose more people."

"Have you already decided who is going?"

"Yes," Pharah intercepted the reply. "And it is final."

Hanzo felt flush with heat and his eyebrows furrowed. "It should be decided as a group!"

"It's based on who is best suited, nothing more."

"And who are you to decide what I am suited for?" Hanzo rose to his feet, and he felt every set of eyes in the room on him. Even Genji had turned his head to stare up at him.

"Pharah is a qualified military leader," Mercy said gently. "She makes good decisions. You know that."

"I believe I deserve my say!" Hanzo argued, now furious that they all seemed to have decided this before he'd even arrived in the shuttle. "Why did this discussion take place in secret? Why did some know earlier, and the others were called to this meeting?"

"It was who happened to be with Winston and I when we heard the message," Pharah sounded frustrated now, but Hanzo didn't care. She was being completely unreasonable.

"We used to work as a team! Now you divide us!" Hanzo realized he was yelling, his hands pulled into clenched fists at his sides.

"We don't have time for this!" Symmetra suddenly yelled, throwing her hands into the air. "Lena is in real danger and you two are arguing over something that's already decided! It doesn't matter who goes to rescue her, just that someone does! The longer we wait the more chance there is of something really bad happening to her, and unless you want that, stop fighting!"

Hanzo was still staring at Pharah, chest heaving with angry breaths. For a long moment they all stayed like that, looking at each other, until Hanzo took his seat again. He looked sideways at Genji, but his brother had already turned away from him. He then let his gaze slip over to Harley. She looked upset, eyes darting back and forth between everyone sitting around the table, and then occasionally over at the door where Jack and McCree still hadn't returned from.

"If everyone can stay calm for a minute," Winston gave Hanzo a purposeful look. "I believe we should go over who will be in the rescue and reconnaissance party, and what the duties of those staying here will be. We're going to have to redouble our efforts now… hell, we don't even really know what we're facing anymore."

"Mercy, would you bring Jack and McCree back inside?" Pharah asked. Mercy nodded and wordlessly left the shuttle. Hanzo could hear Symmetra breathing heavily from across the table; she was obviously extremely upset, and that level of emotion in a crisis this dire could be fatal. He'd always known her to be quite calm and reasonable. He supposed it had to do with Lena's disappearance. She was everyone's friend, but even though he didn't understand it himself, he supposed the grief could affect everyone differently. Still, she should keep her composure. A war would likely mean casualties.

The room was effectively silent until Mercy returned with McCree and Jack in tow. Neither of them uttered a word, they simply took their seats again, and Mercy did the same. Winston and Pharah looked like they were quietly deliberating something at the head of the table, and Hanzo felt his eyes drift back to Harley. She looked badly shaken. He almost felt pity for her, that she'd been thrust not only into a dangerous mission but that said mission had just become ten times more complicated. For her first time out in the field, it was going to be difficult.

His pity and concern quickly changed to frustration, however, when Harley reached over and placed her hand on McCree's arm, which was lying flat on the table. He watched as the cowboy put his other hand on top of hers, and they rested like that for several moments. It felt like his chest had caught fire, his eyes blurred, he almost choked on air. He couldn't explain the feeling, but chalked it up to the blatant and disrespectful show of what seemed to be affection during an extremely serious meeting. _This shuttle, this haven, this entire mission is not the place to behave like that. Overwatch is not meant to form romantic relationships. That kind of distracting emotion only clouds your judgment._ He opened his mouth to say something, but the two of them broke connection as Pharah began speaking.

"Alright, everyone here will be split into two groups," She held up a piece of paper that Winston had been scribbling on. "Mercy, Genji, Jack, Symmetra, Lucio and I will be leaving to find Lena and figure out more about this complication on the crisis. Winston, DVa, McCree, Mei, Hanzo and Harley will stay here to train and organize a new plan of attack. Understood?"

Hanzo clenched his teeth at the news. Of course they were leaving him behind, in spite of the fact that he was the best sniper in Overwatch. It seemed they'd chosen the leaving party based on the ability to be stealthy, and what better way than by sniping out the enemies? He couldn't understand. Winston of all people would have known that the team would benefit by sending Hanzo on the rescue mission, so why wasn't he part of it?

He shifted, opening his mouth to complain, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Genji was facing him. His brother had unlocked the front of his mask to reveal just his eyes, the same way he had when Hanzo first learned he was alive. It was unnerving, staring into the brown eyes that Hanzo had once watched the light leave when he'd struck his brother down. But Genji was trying to tell him something with that stare. His true stare. Hanzo knew his brother wanted him to be peaceful, and respect the decision that had been made. It annoyed him greatly that Genji could communicate so much to him without saying a word. With a quiet sigh, he opted against arguing, and Genji closed his mask again.

"We leave in two hours," Pharah instructed. "As for those of you staying here, Winston will brief you on what you'll need to do."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Hanzo stood among the five others who were staying at Hanamura as Pharah's plane took off, taking the rest of the group with it. He still felt so agitated but tried to control it. Winston was on his left, cleaning his glasses with a rag, muttering something to himself. Harley was on his right, wringing her hands. Everyone else seemed fairly calm considering the circumstances, though DVa was blowing loud, smacking bubbles with her gum and the sound was beginning to grate on him. Right as he turned to her to tell her to knock it off, Winston cleared his throat.

"Alright, we'll need to be much more organized now, and follow a much more strict routine," He scratched the back of his head. "We also need to stay focused, even though I know we'll all be worrying about the others. We can only help them by getting our jobs done."

"We're all ears, buddy," McCree said through the cigar in his teeth. Hanzo scowled, finding the habit dirty and foul-smelling.

"Mei and I will be doing some research on how we can safely freeze these humans until we can figure out how to remove the mind control, so we'll be working in the shuttle's lab," Winston continued. "DVa and McCree, I'll need you two working on plans of attack, should it come to blows…" He hesitated, obviously bothered by the idea. Hanzo didn't revel in the idea of killing people either, especially since that was what he'd given up his family and empire to get away from, but what had to be done to save the rest of the world had to be done.

"Hanzo, I'd like you to continue working with Harley. You didn't get enough training in earlier and Harley, your powers may be extremely useful in the near future, so we have to know how well you can reliably use them."

Somehow, this time, the idea of working with Harley wasn't so terrible. Hanzo looked over at her and she gave him her trademark toothy smile, along with a thumbs-up. He merely nodded back at her. Her ability to revert to gleeful after the horrible news they'd just gotten was completely alien to him, but perhaps she needed to keep trying to be happy. He wasn't sure what was going on in her mind, but her strange ricocheting between emotional states was bizarre.

"Good luck, everyone," Mei said softly, lacking her usual light tone. Winston patted her on the back and began to lead her back to the shuttle.

"No time to lose!" He called over his shoulder.

"Well, I guess I'll be seeing y'all later," McCree tipped his hat to Harley, who smiled at him warmly. DVa winked and pointed her finger at Hanzo. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she popped her gum again. He was glad to see her walk away for now.

When he turned back to Harley, she was still smiling. He caught himself admiring the way her blue eyes lit up when she smiled and the soft, barely-noticeable freckles on her cheeks. He averted his gaze quickly and gestured for her to follow him without saying a word. His ears were burning and he kept his head down as he walked quicker than usual, which cause Harley to fall into a slow jog beside him.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Hanzo looked over at her without stopping. "What?"

"Well, we're practically running here," Her tone was light-hearted. "I figure you're probably pretty upset after everything that happened, especially with Pharah… It seemed like you really wanted to go on that mission."

"I…" He faltered, unsure of how to explain his actions – which now that they had been pointed out, he found rather embarrassing – to her properly. "I thought I'd be an asset."

"You definitely would have been!" She chirped happily, in what he assumed was supposed to be a reassuring tone. "I guess Pharah must have had her reasons. I heard a lot through the program about what a brave and smart military leader she is. I can't imagine she would have left you here without a really good reason."

"You're probably right," He acknowledged, though it irked him to admit it.

"Personally I just can't believe Tracer got captured… I met her right before I came here, she was at the base where I transferred onto a secure plane. The Talon agent who captured her must have really known what he was doing… especially considering Captain Morrison's reaction… and Jesse's…"

Hanzo remained quiet following her trailing-off words, figuring now was not the best time to delve into some of Overwatch's darker moments. Things were bad enough as they were without going into the drama of Reaper, and Talon, and the very likely reason they decided to capture Lena above all the other heroes. He was also a little suspicious that the last person to see Lena before she was taken was Harley, especially considering that Reaper would have had to secretly board Lena's plane at that base. Even though he'd certainly begun warming to Harley, he couldn't completely discredit the feelings of uncertainty that still plagued his mind. However, until he had something concrete, he couldn't waste energy dwelling on it. He attempted to put all of it out of his mind and focus on the task at hand, as they were nearing an ugly, out-of-place concrete building tucked away in the back corner of Hanamura. It was a practice range his father had built he and Genji all those years ago. It was a place where they could hone their sword and archery skills without destroying anything valuable. It had also been equipped with moving robotic targets, and though they were old, they'd still work.

"Huh?" Harley's confused sound as they came up to the building was expected.

"A practice range my father built," Hanzo walked up to the door and leaned his shoulder into it hard to force it open. "You may be more at ease testing your powers here."

The smell of Hanzo's childhood almost winded him as he took in the scent. It may have been slightly covered by the scent of dust and a little mildew, but underneath was the distinct smell of floor mats and sweat and old metal. His heart ached. He switched on the lights and he was bowled over by memories. He hadn't set foot on this range since he was a teenager, and yet he could perfectly picture young Genji springing off the walls, refusing to stand still long enough for Hanzo to explain what they were supposed to be practicing that day. He could hear his father's voice scolding them for chasing each other around instead of sparring. There was a tingling sensation in his nose and he quickly blinked away any tears that may have been imminent.

Harley must have noticed his reaction. "Is everything okay?"

"It's fine," He walked over to the control panel at the back of the room without looking at her. "I think we will start with something you mentioned to me at our last training session. If I recall, you said you could make the ground shake?"

"Yeah!"

"Alright," Hanzo pulled one lever slowly, and three panels on the far wall opened. He pushed a button – really pushed it, it was old and beginning to stick – and from the open panels, three training robots emerged. They walked lazily into the center of the room and stopped. "Do you know if it can be concentrated directionally, or does it automatically affect the whole area?"

"Honestly… I've never tried to direct it…" She seemed bashful at the admission. "But I think it would be good for a bigger area anyway… you know, crowd control."

"Fair enough. Let's begin."

Hanzo pushed buttons on the control panel like he'd used it just yesterday. He programmed the robots' movement without a second thought, fingers gliding seamlessly over the input. When he was satisfied, he looked over at Harley and nodded. She grinned and nodded back. For the first time in all their interactions, it looked like she felt confident.

The robots sprang to life, moving around the range in awkward, clanking movements. They were old but seemed to function with as much reliability as they ever did. He had set them to passive mode for now, so all they did was wander. Hanzo watched Harley with great interest as she lifted her arms and the ground began to vibrate gently. It rumbled without much effect for a few moments, but she suddenly threw her arms up towards the ceiling, and the entire building shook with the force of an earthquake. The robots all spilled onto their sides while Harley stayed perfectly stationary. Even Hanzo had to reach for the wall behind him to keep his balance.

"Very interesting," He mused once the shaking stopped a moment later. "I will reset the robots, then I'd like you to test it again, but directional this time. I think this has great potential for a temporary incapacitation without serious harm."

"Really?" The tone of her voice was a combination of shock and delight, or at least, that was what Hanzo heard. He found her hard to read, the way she bounced between emotional states, and he was honestly a little concerned about putting someone so mentally volatile into high-pressure, intensely dangerous situations. However, he couldn't refute the entire initiate approval board. At least not without fully understanding her and what caused her to act that way.

"Yes," Hanzo tapped the control panel again and the robots got themselves standing upright. He set them to begin moving around again, then left the control panel and walked over to where Harley was standing. She looked up at him from underneath her orange bangs, the hint of a smirk on her lips. For whatever reason, her face captivated him in that moment, and he couldn't look away. He must have looked a little too long, because she suddenly made a face at him.

"Is there something on my face?" She laughed a little as she spoke, and Hanzo shook his head to clear it. He turned his gaze on the robots and cleared his throat, wishing that whatever feeling was currently twisting his insides would leave him alone.

"I would like you to focus on the one marked 'number two'," He went on with the training, hoping she wouldn't think too much about the interaction they'd just had. "When fighting at a distance, all pieces of you must work together. You can't simply rely on concentrating with your mind; you must concentrate with your heart, with your very soul. Your abilities seem like they're fairly deeply rooted within you. You should be able to access the very deepest part of yourself to control your powers in any way you choose."

"Wow…" Harley breathed. "I've never thought about it like that."

"Now try it," Hanzo put one hand on her shoulder and used his right arm to guide her sight to the robot he wanted her to focus on. "Go."

He watched intently as she only lifted one arm this time, facing her palm towards the robot. As before, the ground rumbled a little bit beneath them. This time, however, Harley kept her pose, training her hand on the robot as it walked around the area, and the rumbling grew to a vibration. When the robot was clear of the others, she closed her fist and there was a loud cracking sound as the building shook with such force that the floor split. It cracked in both ahead of and behind Harley in a straight line, knocking both the robot and Hanzo over in the process.

Hanzo landed with a thud on his back. He immediately felt his body go hot; he was embarrassed that he hadn't kept better balance, and that he had been too distracted watching Harley to notice when he needed to keep steady. He sat up quickly, trying to hide a wince of pain, and looked at the crack in the floor.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry!" Harley's voice was panicked and she was cringing back from him, like an animal that expected to be kicked. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," He assured her, trying to keep from sounding angry. In reality, the person he was truly angry with this time was himself, but he knew Harley would think he was mad at her if he made any indication of it. Like both Winston and Genji had told him, he needed to stay balanced and not get so agitated. Besides, he could always let his anger out later during some training of his own.

"I didn't know it would do that, I swear," Harley seemed to recover herself a little and reached down to help him up.

Hanzo hesitated before taking her hand. His pride was already bruised from the fall – along with his tailbone – and there was a large part of him that wanted to knock her hand away and tell her that he didn't need help. But instead he took a moment and closed his eyes, allowing himself a deep breath, and accepted her offer. Her pale hand was soft and he suddenly felt conscious of his own hands, calloused from climbing and using a bow. _What a ridiculous thought to have_ , he told himself as he came into a standing position. _My hands are worn from the experience of battle, and there is no shame in that. She simply hasn't seen enough action yet._

But when he was finally upright, their hands didn't come apart right away. He found himself enjoying the silky feeling of her skin and the way her small fingers curled around his large ones. It was perhaps only a second of extra contact, but Hanzo felt shaken by it. Enough that he was ready to call it a day on training.

"Perhaps that is enough for today," He took a look at the damage. "I'll need to repair the floor before we can continue working in here. Besides, the sun is setting, and it has been a long day."

"I really am sorry," Harley said again, though he could practically see the relief in her eyes. "I'll try not to break anything tomorrow."

"You are learning," Hanzo tried to keep his face neutral through everything that was rushing through his mind. "There has been a good deal thrust upon you. It's probably best that you get some rest tonight as I imagine tomorrow will be another long day."

"Sure," Harley smiled her toothy smile at him. "See you tomorrow!"

"Until tomorrow."


	8. Chapter 8

_**(Author's note: This chapter is dedicated to 'An Azure Neptune'. Your reviews of each chapter are something I wait for with great excitement and I'm so glad you've been enjoying the story. Hope you enjoy this chapter too!)**_

 **Chapter 8**

After Harley left the practice range, closing the door behind her, Hanzo leaned against the nearest wall and slumped to a sitting position on the floor. He winced slightly; he'd already forgotten that his back was bruised. The day had drained him. It had been a flurry of training, meetings, bad news and more training, and even he had to admit he was tired. He rested his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.

Maybe it was the fact that he was back at his childhood home, not to mention inside his childhood practice range, but Hanzo suddenly had the strong desire to speak with his brother. He felt like he was finally ready to open up just that little more to him, likely because of all the confusing thoughts and feelings swirling inside him. For a man who had spent his entire life studying battle, and how to be a better warrior in both body and mind, Hanzo realized he was not very in touch with his own heart. That was certainly something Genji had learned after the incident – after all his time with Zenyatta, Genji seemed to be at peace with the fact that even though most of his body was a machine, his heart remained human, and he was grateful for that. Even though Hanzo didn't want to admit it to himself, and would definitely never admit it to his brother, he was a little envious of Genji in that way.

At the same time, being too in touch with your heart could become a weakness; a liability. He thought back to when he'd been ordered to kill Genji, and how heartbroken he'd felt after the deed was done. He'd practically wasted away, giving up everything he'd ever worked for. He had become a shell of himself, weak and listless, because of being too connected to his emotions.

 _My goal is to restore my honor and complete any mission I am given, especially now_ , he told himself sternly, forcing his body to a standing position. _Just because Hanamura was once my home does not mean this is any kind of spiritual journey. This is not the time._

As he walked slowly to the center of the arena, examining the crack in the floor as he did so, his mind drifted to the brief contact he'd had with Harley. Maybe it was because he hadn't had any true physical contact – apart from training and fighting – in so many years he'd simply forgotten what it was like. _Maybe I was just tired_. But the way she smiled and the twinkle in her eye when she was happy was still burned in his brain; an image he just couldn't seem to shake. He paced the length of the crack several times, telling himself that all of this was simply because he had spent more time with Harley than anyone else in the time they'd been here and their interaction was the freshest thing in his mind. At the very least, he hoped that was all it was.

The crack in the floor wasn't very deep; it was just long, spanning half the length of the large practice area. Hanzo recalled that his father had always kept some cement putty in one of the storage rooms for when he needed to patch the holes the two brothers would make throwing each other into the walls. He shook his head as he walked towards the storage rooms, trying to clear it. He was having little success. _I'll need to meditate tonight and find my center_. Meditation was one of the things that he'd finally agreed to let Genji show him, and it was very good for calming uneasy nerves.

Hanzo was unsure of how long it took him to patch the crack, he had sort of fallen into a trance-like state as he worked, smoothing the putty in repetitive strokes. It was likely at least an hour had passed, maybe two.

Even though he was tired and wanted to meditate, the first thing he wanted to do was take in some of the cool night air. Now that the sun had gone down he could appreciate the beauty of Hanamura in the moonlight by means of a rooftop walk. He didn't want to risk running into Winston since he had no desire to go over the training session. He just wanted to be alone in the darkness and breathe the fresh, cherry-scented air.

Rather than leave via the door, Hanzo opted to quickly scale the wall and climb outside through one of the windows instead. He easily pulled himself onto the roof, allowing a small smile to play on his lips as he felt the familiar and comfortable exertion in his arm muscles. He strolled the flat roof of the training range easily, which was relaxing, but now that he was invigorated by the fresh air he wished to do something a little more challenging. With the flat surface as a starting point, he took off running and was able to build up a great deal of speed. He had no hesitation when the edge of the rooftop came up quickly; he pushed himself off the edge with both feet, soared through the air, and grabbed hold of the edge of the nearest temple. Adrenaline coursed through his body as he pulled himself on top. He smiled broadly for the first time in what felt like a long time. His mind and body were free. With another powerful leap, assisted by his special armored boots, he jumped to the next temple's roof.

Hanzo positioned himself to jump again, but was stopped by the sound of voices in the garden below. Carefully, watching where his feet fell so he wouldn't make any noise, he walked along the edge of the rooftop until the owners of the voices came into view.

Harley and McCree were sitting on a wooden bench under an early-blooming sakura tree, being showered with pedals whenever the wind blew. Hanzo could see them clearly, head-on, through an opening in the branches, but he was certain he was obscured enough to be unnoticeable if they happened to look up. However, it didn't seem like they had any intention of looking anywhere other than at each other, based on how close they were sitting to each other. McCree had one arm stretched across the back of the bench, and Harley was sitting cross-legged on the bench so she could completely face him. Hanzo felt all the adrenaline leave his body as he couldn't help but watch their interaction.

"So wait," Harley dramatically gestured with her hands. "You think Reaper, the rogue Blackwatch leader, is the Talon agent who kidnapped Tracer?"

"Not just any rogue. We try to keep this under wraps for new recruits, but he was my mentor once, now he's…" McCree paused; it was hard to see his facial expression due to his hat. "He's something else. And I ain't gonna promise you it's him, but with the description we got and the nature of the crime… it just kinda fits."

"What?" Harley's voice was loud.

"Shhh, we don't wanna disturb anybody," McCree took off his hat, put it on the bench beside him, and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, Reaper is the one who picked me up at Route 66. I was no good back then. Well, I suppose I can't rightly say I'm all good now, but I was worse then."

"I can hardly believe that."

"It's true. My options when Commander Reyes found me were join up, or get behind bars. When I joined, I trained pretty close with Reyes. They don't include this in your information packets, or whatever they give you during initiation, because Overwatch has to be real careful nowadays. We can't have anyone thinking that the program is there to bail them out of trouble with the law; we need fine upstanding folk these days. All eyes are on us since Recall. You know a lotta people think we were disbanded for good reason and should have stayed that way, but of course they don't really understand everything we did."

There was a long moment of silence between them, and Hanzo couldn't help but roll his eyes. Here was McCree, the cigar-smoking, gun-twirling hick who was basically plucked from prison, lecturing Harley about Overwatch's standards.

"Wow…" Harley finally said, her voice much quieter now. "I can't believe that. Reaper, of all people."

"Can't believe it myself sometimes," McCree's face looked somber. "Frankly, I can't believe he's back after all this time. For a while there I was sure he couldn't be killed, but when he disappeared two years ago, I thought maybe that was finally the end. Figured he might have found some peace."

Hanzo watched, eyebrows raised, as Harley placed her hand on McCree's shoulder. He turned his head to look at her, and then moved the arm that had been across the back of the bench to her lower back. They stayed like that for a few seconds, just staring. Although he knew he shouldn't be invading their privacy like this, Hanzo's mind had started to blur, and he couldn't seem to move his feet. He was frozen in place, both curious and frustrated about their behavior.

"Maybe we should go get some rest…" Harley ventured, though she made no inclination of moving.

"Maybe," McCree answered, leaning a little closer to her.

If Hanzo had blinked in that moment he might have missed it. They were suddenly kissing: Harley had wrapped both her arms around McCree's neck, pulling her out of her cross-legged position so that she was now more kneeling on the bench. The cowboy had one hand on her face and the other still on the small of her back, holding her in place.

Hanzo became so dizzy with anger he thought that he might faint and actually had to put his hands down to keep from sliding right off the rooftop. A searing, boiling rage filled him, powerful enough that he was practically blinded by it. He couldn't watch anymore. Through the anger a sharp pain in his chest was present but he ignored it as he made his way down from the roof on the other side of the building and headed straight for the temple where his shrine to Genji still stood, everything delicately in its place even after discovering that his brother was alive. He wasn't concerned with being quiet anymore as he stomped his way into the temple, old wooden floorboards creaking under his heavy footfalls. He made a beeline for where his katana, the one he swore he'd never use again, rested on the shrine.

Once the sword was in his hands his rage overcame him and he let everything loose. He swung wildly but with precision, smashing every pot of incense and vase of flowers that once rested at the shrine. The dragon tattoo on his arm and shoulder began to glow a faint blue as he picked up momentum, slashing mindlessly at the wooden pillars around him and even crashing right through a few tables. His mind was blank, his body felt like it was on fire, and what perhaps made him the angriest was that he still didn't really understand the origin of this explosion.

As he calmed and tired, letting the sword fall to his side and examining the damage he'd done, it occurred to him that it obviously had to do with the interaction between Harley and McCree he'd just witnessed. And the more his mind cleared – all the fog washed away by the abrupt tantrum – the more it dawned on him that these feelings extended far beyond caring about professionalism. They extended through all the bizarre feelings he'd been having every time he was around Harley. _I've been ignoring myself_ , he ceded, releasing the katana from his grip. It clanged against the floor.

 _I've been such a fool._


	9. Chapter 9 (Parts 1,2&3)

**Chapter 9 - Part 1**

For the first time in many, many years – longer than he could remember – Hanzo didn't sleep. He had laid awake the entire night, tossing and turning. His stomach was tight, he had pains in his chest, and his mind raced back and forth between a million thoughts. He simultaneously wished to tell someone about it, but at the same time, wished to suppress it and go on like he always had. Only one thing had ever managed to slow him in the past, and that was perhaps the most traumatic thing a person could do. _It makes no sense for me to be so worked up over nothing_.

 _But it isn't 'nothing', is it_? He thought to himself, lying in his bed. His head was pounding from exhaustion and yet there was nothing he could do to ease it. Besides, the sun was already rising, and others were already stirring in their rooms.

Hanzo sat up and immediately fell back down, his loose hair feathering out across his pillow. He thought of the fit he'd thrown last night, smashing apart the altar. He knew Genji would forgive him, but it was a stupid, childish thing to have done. Worse, he thought of the fact that he hadn't bothered to clean it up, and someone was surely going to wonder what had happened there. He would have to come up with a good excuse, because the truth was too complicated, and he couldn't even explain it to himself, let alone someone else.

 _I need air. And a shower_. He forced himself into a standing position, which was uncomfortable, and grabbed his tunic from the floor. He held it in his hand as he left his room and made his way outside towards the bathhouse. For all the modern amenities of all the places Hanzo had ever stayed, nothing was quite like his family's traditional bathhouse. Sure, it had been hooked up with running water and shower heads, but the aesthetic was as old fashioned as ever, and the bath was still intact. He opted however to use one of the shower stalls, since he didn't know how much time he would have until he was called to duty. Winston was not great about giving a reliable starting time for the day.

He left his clothing in a neat pile on a small stool just outside of the stall and pulled a towel from the large shelving unit full of them. Flipping the towel over the side of the stall, out of the way of the water, he closed the door and turned on the shower.

Warm water washed over his naked body and he finally felt his muscles beginning to relax. He leaned one arm on the wall and rested his forehead against his arm so the water poured down his back. His head was still throbbing but at least he didn't feel quite so sick anymore. As the water soaked through his salt-and-pepper hair it clung to his face, neck and shoulders. There were a brief few moments of peace before Hanzo's mind began to race again, anticipating everything that he would need to address once his day truly began.

 _"Your spirit lacks harmony"._ Genji's words echoed inside Hanzo's head over and over again, as they had for most of the night. And he was right; Hanzo was at complete discord with himself. _But how did I end up this way_? He asked himself, standing straight so the water washed down his chest. _Surely it is not the war that has me behaving like an errant teenager. I've seen plenty of battle and the stress which accompanies it and never have I felt so… at odds with myself_. He pushed his hair back from his face, and thought about what Genji might suggest the problem was if he were around to talk to. Even though Hanzo already felt annoyed trying to picture his brother's smug self-assuredness as he probed directly at the issue, he knew exactly what Genji would say: _"You already know, brother. And you know that you know. You hide from yourself because you do not wish to face the truth, but you know that is not a path that will lead to peace and harmony."_

Hanzo turned off the water and quickly dried himself off, though his long hair was still dripping when he stepped out of the stall with the towel tied around his waist. As he walked back to the shelf to get another towel to finish drying his hair, he passed an ornate mirror that hung between the showers and the bath. He stared at his reflection.

 _You've developed some strange feelings about Harley_. It was uncomfortable just thinking the words to himself, but Genji's likely words were correct. He was hiding from his own feelings just because they were new and complicated. _And even if I don't understand them, I can still acknowledge where the feelings are based. It is certainly not normal behavior for me to be in such a rage... Was that… jealousy?_ He sneered at his reflection, irked at the thought of being jealous of anything to do with McCree. _But what else could it be?_

He was tired, and thinking about this was just adding to his deepening exhaustion. He left the mirror and snatched up a towel, rubbing his head vigorously for a minute or two. When he pulled the towel off his head, he came face to face with DVa and Mei. They were both still in their pajamas and DVa looked to be still mostly asleep.

"Good morning!" Mei chirped cheerfully. DVa sort of waved.

"Good… morning…" Hanzo stammered, suddenly incredibly conscious of the fact that all he was wearing was a towel. He cursed himself for lingering around so long, daydreaming about feelings when there were more important tasks at hand.

"Do you mind if we use the showers now?" Mei smiled, inclining her head to one side. "Winston wants to do a morning briefing over breakfast."

"Uh… yes, of course…" Rather sheepishly, Hanzo gathered up his clothing and left the shower area. He couldn't very well walk across the entire courtyard in just his towel – it was embarrassing enough that Mei and perhaps DVa had seen him that way – so he decided to walk around the back of the bathhouse to put his clothes on.

He made the change quickly and begrudgingly headed towards Winston's shuttle, internally cringing at the thought of interacting with so many people on zero sleep. From his pocket he produced the cloth strip he used to tie his hair up and fiddled with it a moment. The shuttle came into view and he could see Winston standing outside the entrance, fiddling with his communication device. Hanzo sighed, steeled himself for the inevitable slew of questions, put his hair up and walked over to the gorilla.

Winston's eyes flickered up as Hanzo approached him. "Morning."

"Hello," Hanzo replied, but Winston was already back to fussing with his device. "Is something the matter?"

"I got a message from Pharah a few minutes ago, but for some reason I'm having trouble receiving it. I'm worried that Talon is jamming their signals, and it's critical we know how their mission is going in case they need backup. It's stressing me out!" Winston's nostrils flared as he hit several buttons on the device, and Hanzo was afraid he might break it.

"I'm sure you will figure it out," Hanzo turned away from him and took a step to go inside the shuttle before Winston stopped him.

"Wait, there was something I wanted to ask you about," A serious look came over him. "This morning I came out into the main area of that large temple and the shrine near the back was completely destroyed. It was a real mess. Do you know if something happened last night?"

"There was an… incident," Hanzo averted his gaze. "I will clean it up later."

"Alright…" Winston didn't press this issue, but looked suspicious. "Well, if you want to head inside, everyone should be arriving in the next few minutes."

Hanzo left Winston outside and walked into the empty shuttle. There was already food laid out on the table, and Hanzo wondered if Winston had gotten up even earlier than he had, or if the gorilla-man had slept at all. He eyed the bowl of fruit in the middle of the table and settled on eating an orange. Even though he usually hated eating first thing in the morning, because he hadn't slept, he needed the fuel to keep him going.

A few minutes later, Harley came into the shuttle. Hanzo felt every muscle in his body go tense as she walked into the room. She was wearing a black dress that stopped mid-thigh, with thin straps, and knee socks. She looked good. He felt his breath catch in his throat and looked down at the table. Even though he was ashamed of it, he couldn't look at her. All he could see was her kissing that cowboy.

"Good morning!" She said. He heard her pull out a chair across the table from him. "Did you have a good night after we finished training?"

"Yes," Hanzo lied, his tone coming out much sharper than he intended. He hated lying.

"That's good."

He kept his eyes downward and busied himself with peeling another orange to have an excuse not to look at her. His actions felt stupid and juvenile but just having her in the room at the moment was giving him chest pains. This was something he'd have to figure out how to handle and quickly, because he couldn't simply avoid her on the base.

"Do you know what's going on with Winston?" Harley asked through a mouthful of whatever she was eating. "He seemed upset."

"I don't know," Hanzo snapped without really meaning to. "Something to do with the mission I assume."

"Yeah… And how about you? Are you okay?"

"Absolutely fine."

He could tell she wanted to press the issue further, but fortunately they were interrupted by Mei and DVa coming in, who were both followed closely by Winston. The girls sat down and DVa got right to eating; she seemed to be significantly more awake now than earlier. Mei picked up the pot of coffee and served some into each of the six mugs on the table. Hanzo ignored his.

"I guess we're just waiting on…" Winston's sentence was cut short as McCree walked inside and tipped his hat to the room.

"Hope I didn't keep anyone waiting," He took the seat next to Harley and Hanzo caught him touch her hand gently before he looked away again.

"I'm going to get straight to business," Winston's voice was tense. "Earlier I received the check-in message from Pharah. Or rather, I thought that's what I received. It turns out she sent me a video message, but it seems to be badly scrambled. I recovered it in pieces but my portable communication device can't view it, so I'm going to hook it up to the screen here." He gestured to the large screen hanging on the wall behind the table. The air in the room was thick with silence as everyone waited for Winston to transfer the file. Hanzo kept his eyes pressed forwards, refusing to allow himself to look over at Harley even though he was tempted.

There was some static on the screen, and then the video began playing. It appeared to be taken from Pharah's body camera.

 **Chapter 9 - Part 2**

The lighting inside the jet was dim but the figures of Jack, Symmetra and Mercy could all be made out fairly clearly. It was a military-style aircraft, so the seats were two benches facing each other with a wide aisle down the middle. Pharah turned and Lucio and Genji came into view.

"We're going to be landing fairly close to the Dorado base, so we're going to have to move quickly," Pharah's disembodied voice said. "The exit order will be Genji, Lucio, myself, Symmetra, Jack, Mercy. Genji will be our scout, and we'll be communicating through the wireless earpiece I gave you earlier. Try to avoid speaking at all costs though; we can't afford to let Talon know we're here. Lena's safety depends on it."

"The Dorado base is tricky," Jack spoke. "And with the new intel that the soldiers we thought were Omnics are really people, it's even more complicated."

"Symmetra, you'll drop your turrets as we go so they can alert us, or simply knock out anyone who comes looking," Pharah continued. "Set them to low power so no one gets seriously hurt. Remember, we're also here to figure out if this mind control that Talon has used on all these innocent people can be reversed. We don't want to kill anyone if we can avoid it."

"Angela, you'll be taking up the back and watching our six," Jack turned to Mercy, who smiled and nodded. "Alright sounds good. How far off are we from landing?"

"About ten minutes," Pharah answered. "There's one more thing we need to go over, and that's…"

The video turned to static again for a few seconds. When it resumed, Genji was hopping around far in front of the group on the rooftops, while Lucio was immediately in front of Pharah. The others weren't in the image but their footsteps were clear. They were walking down a cobblestone street with low buildings on either side of them. It was dark.

"Roger," Pharah said, obviously responding to something coming from her earpiece that the camera didn't pick up. "Two this way, two that way, two up the middle." She gestured in the appropriate directions with two fingers, and suddenly the entire group split up running. It was apparent even on the video that they were speed boosted by Lucio as they ran, heads low, towards a large black building that didn't quite blend in with its surroundings. There were very few windows and no markings on the sides of the building.

Genji and Lucio had completely disappeared from the camera's view as they'd sharply taken a left. Pharah continued running straight ahead, and the camera briefly caught sight of Jack and Mercy as they split off to the right. Pharah came up to a door that looked like it was the personnel door for the loading docks and stepped aside. Symmetra moved into the camera's view and pointed her energy gun at the lock. It surged orange for a few seconds before snapping open.

"Rally to my position," Pharah instructed, and footsteps could be heard advancing towards her. Jack and Mercy came back into the frame, as did Lucio.

"Wait, where's…"

The video cut out again, this time to a plain black screen. There was a low humming noise over the black for several moments until the feed started up again.

It appeared the camera had been put down on a table because it pointed into a bright room lit with fluorescent lights. Jack and Pharah were standing in the centre of the frame, talking, but the camera seemed to no longer be picking up sound. To their left Lucio was pacing around looking nervous, and Symmetra and Mercy stood to the right. Genji appeared to be missing. The room was white and oddly bare. Pharah and Jack looked like they were arguing. Mercy got in between them.

The lights suddenly went out. Vague outlines of their silhouettes could be seen moving around in the darkness. Pharah reached for the camera and lifted it up. As it panned the room, there was a brief glimpse of a shadowy figure dressed all in black, standing in the corner of the room.

The screen cut to static, then to white, then to black again. Out of the blackness a series of numbers appeared, at first randomly and then they began to form a shape. A small skull. Then the feed went completely dead.

 **Chapter 9 - Part 3**

Hanzo frowned; he knew that symbol. From the look on Winston, Mei and McCree's faces, they all recognized it too. Harley seemed oblivious to the symbol, but her face did portray a worried expression. Even he had to admit it didn't look good. Especially if that was in fact…

"Sombra," McCree muttered angrily.

"What's Sombra?" Harley asked.

"Not what," Winston interrupted. "Who."

"Okay…" Harley looked back and forth between Winston and McCree. "Who's Sombra?"

"She's…" McCree started, but Winston waved his hand.

"We'll have to explain it later. Right now, this looks bad, and we're short on time to figure out how we proceed," The gorilla pushed his glasses up on his nose. "I'm afraid we're going to have to go after them, but it brings our already-diminished numbers even lower."

"They've only just landed, shouldn't we have a little faith?" Mei piped up. "Maybe it's just a delay in the mission."

"There is no way my brother would simply go missing," Hanzo spoke, the reality of the situation just hitting him as he went over the video in his mind. "Genji would never separate from the group like that unless something went wrong. We need to go."

"It's not that simple," Winston sighed. "Let's say that they were taken captive by Talon. That means Talon already has more than half of our original party, do we really want to keep feeding them members of Overwatch? We're those poor brainwashed people's last hope, we can't just charge into Dorado and expect to succeed where a mission of highly capable soldiers already failed."

"I still think it's early to say they failed," DVa argued lazily between yawns. "Lots of the video was missing."

"If Sombra is behind this… If she's working with Reaper again…" McCree was gripping the edge of the table so hard his knuckles were turning white. "They might already be dead."

"That's my brother you speak of!" Hanzo yelled, feeling a bizarre sense of déjà vu of the previous morning when he'd argued with Pharah and Symmetra. Still, to so casually suggest that the entire party – as well as his brother, who he'd already lost once and didn't intend to lose again – was dead was enough to get him riled up.

"Stop! I said we don't have time for this!" Winston banged his hand on the table. "Listen, why doesn't everyone just relax a little while Mei and I try to recover the rest of the video? Maybe if we can get the sound in that last clip we can have a little more context."

"Relax?" Hanzo snarled, incredulous.

"The next few hours, potentially days, are going to be very stressful," Winston was doing a good job keeping his voice calm even though his nostrils were flaring. "I just think it would be best if everyone took some time to clear their heads before we go any further."

"Fine," Hanzo stood up and without saying another word to anyone, walked out of the shuttle. He needed to know what happened to Genji, and hanging around Hanamura trying to relax wasn't solving that problem. As he angrily stormed across the courtyard, he could hear someone calling his name.

"Hanzo! Hanzo wait!" Harley's voice carried through the air.

He stopped and turned around to face her, even though he desperately wanted to keep walking. She caught up with him and looked up at him through her orange bangs; the gentle breeze blew her dress around her legs.

"Yes?"

"I know you said you were okay earlier, but you really don't seem like it."

"And?"

A look of uncertainty crossed her face. "And… I thought… If you wanted to talk…"

"It's nothing," He said, unable for the moment to tear his gaze from her bright blue eyes. Her frame seemed so slight in that moment, like too strong a wind might blow her away. She didn't respond but simply kept staring at him, slightly furrowing her eyebrows. It was clear she didn't believe him, but he didn't know how to respond. His stomach was turning looking at her lips and remembering the way she'd embraced McCree. Then he caught himself imagining how soft her lips were, and how she might taste…

Hanzo shook his head abruptly. "I have to go."

"No wait!" Harley caught the sleeve of his tunic between her fingers, forcing him to stop. He didn't turn around again, afraid that if he looked at her any more his mind would continue going places they hadn't gone since he was a teenager, and this was no time to entertain those ideas.

"What?" He snapped.

"I just… I thought we were getting along… You can talk to me."

"I do not need to talk," He did his best to ignore the pang in his heart. "My brother may be in trouble and I cannot lose him after what I did to him. I have not atoned."

"I know how you feel," She said from behind him, still holding his sleeve. "Really."

"Do you?!" He spun on his heel to face her, feeling the same kind of anger he'd felt at her the first night they'd met. "Do not make claims about understanding until you know what you're talking about. I thought I killed my brother; I certainly left him for dead. All because of some foolish dream. I betrayed him for my own selfish future. Now how could you understand that?!"

Harley's face hardened. "I just do."

"You're a child," He sneered, frustrated and exhausted.

"I am twenty-nine!" She snapped right back. He hadn't heard her raise her voice before. "And don't act like you own personal pain! There's bad stuff in my past too, and I'm trying to tell you that I'll talk to you about whatever you're worried about! Why do you keep acting like this? It's like you're two different people! Where's the Hanzo I trained with last night?"

Hanzo opened his mouth to reply but closed it again, grinding his teeth together. He could see across the courtyard that McCree had exited the shuttle and seemed to be looking around, probably for Harley. The image of them kissing was instantly conjured again and Hanzo reeled inside.

"I think McCree is looking for you," He said as calmly as possible, and without waiting for her to say anything else, walked away.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Hanzo busied himself picking up the broken pieces of Genji's shrine, doing his best to push Harley out of his mind. Most of his effort was in vain. _I can't just keep behaving the way I did today_ , he thought, already starting to feel guilty about the way he'd snapped at her. _And I certainly can't ignore the feelings, that much has made itself clear_. He overturned a fragment of a vase in his hand, examining its once-detailed flower pattern now smashed into hundreds of pieces.

He let out a long, deep sigh. Despite the unfortunate nature of avoiding a problem instead of dealing with it, he hoped they would all have to travel to Dorado to find the others, since that would provide him with a much better distraction than standing around here, trapped inside his own head. He needed air.

"Hanzo?" Winston's voice carried across the temple.

Surprised, Hanzo turned around to see the gorilla headed towards him. Winston looked deeply troubled, even more than earlier.

"I thought you would be finding out what happened to the rest of that video," Hanzo walked closer to the centre of the room to meet him.

"We were only able to get the sound to that last clip so far. Mei noticed a pattern in the numbers, and we managed to… Look, it's not important how we did it, the point is that things are worse than we thought and they're probably getting worse by the second," Winston's voice sounded strained. "I'm afraid that some of us are going to have to go to Dorado."

Hanzo furrowed his brow. "What's happened?"

"You saw how Jack and Pharah were arguing right before the lights went out."

"Yes."

"Well…" Winston paused and cleared his throat, clearly upset. "They found Lena, but they weren't able to get her out. From what I pieced together from they were saying, she's hooked up to a machine they couldn't figure out before the guards came and they had to run. It's hooked up to her chronal accelerator… they can't just tear it out. Pharah wanted to get the agents out, Jack wanted to stay and fight to get Lena out."

"What about Genji?"

"There was nothing about him in that particular discussion, I'm afraid," Winston grimaced. "But that's another matter altogether. If they're using Lena for something… we have to get her out of there. And I don't think anyone there will be able to figure out her chronal accelerator. I'm going to have to be the one to go."

"Have you made contact with the others?" Hanzo asked, trying to ignore the fury building inside him at the cavalier attitude everyone had regarding his brother's disappearance.

"All of our original channels are dead. Mei is working on reversing the signal through which we received the video, to see if we can access any of their equipment that way. But for all we know everything they're carrying could be hacked or destroyed by now. Especially if Sombra is involved."

"You are not going alone."

"No," Winston sighed. "I'll absolutely need to take Harley."

Hanzo felt his eyes widen. "What? Her? Why?"

"Her powers are perfect for this type of situation. I was stupid not to have her go with the first team. I didn't think she was ready."

"She isn't ready," Hanzo stalled for a moment, grinding his teeth. While Harley showed an extreme amount of promise, she was still so green, and she'd never seen combat like this. Not to mention the thought of sending her into a situation that soldiers like Pharah and Jack couldn't handle made his stomach turn.

"We don't have a choice," Winston said firmly. "She'll have to have a trial by fire."

"Then I am going too."

"No, we can't afford to have…"

"Winston," Hanzo snarled. "I cannot allow you to fly into a Talon base completely blind with no back up but a brand new initiate. Besides, my brother is there, I must find him."

There were a few moments of silence between them as they stared each other down, each one baring his teeth a little. Hanzo realized he was breathing quite heavily and tried to steady himself. His heart was pounding against his chest so hard it was almost painful. _Is this really as much about Genji as I'm making it out to be_? He absent-mindedly wondered as he waited for Winston to reply, still refusing to break eye contact. _Or is it…_

"Fine," Winston exhaled loudly through his nostrils. "You're going to have a few hours before we leave, since we're still trying to figure out if we can make contact with the other agents. Use that time wisely with Harley and get in as much training as you possibly can. She's going to need it."

"Very well," Hanzo nodded, and Winston left the temple. Once he was out of sight, Hanzo let out a long breath and shook his head to clear it. _You're making no sense_ , he told himself, still too tired to make heads or tails of his actions. _A few minutes ago you could barely stand to look at her, and now you're insisting on going on a mission with her? What is wrong with you_? He knew that berating himself wasn't solving anything, but he had always been hard on himself in the past in order to become stronger in the future. He needed to face his shortcomings. If only he could figure out how he wanted to behave around Harley.

 _No time to figure it out now_. He headed out the back door of the temple, unsure of where she'd gone after he left her outside the shuttle. No matter what was going on in his mind, he needed to find her so they could focus on the task at hand.

He did a cursory scan of the adjacent courtyards and didn't see her. Already annoyed, he doubled back to his room in order to get his bow and arrows. Hanzo hated wasting time and a few sonic arrows would make quick work of figuring out where Harley was. He stepped outside again and grabbed three arrows from his quiver, firing them in rapid succession in three different directions across the base. They pinged the silhouettes of Mei and Winston in one direction, DVa in another, and finally, around the back of the bathhouse, the distinct outlines of Harley and McCree.

Hanzo instantly felt his chest tighten when he realized he'd have to go get her, which meant interacting with both of them at once. Gritting his teeth, he began walking in their direction, trying not to drag his feet. He did however indulge himself in taking the longer route to where they were standing; it took him through one of the more dense gardens at Hanamura, the one his grandmother had babied her whole life. The trees, shrubs and flowers that she had once so delicately and purposefully pruned with her own frail hands instilled a sense of calm over him.

Right as he was about to round the corner closest to where the two were standing, he heard them talking and paused. He pressed his body up against the building and inched himself close enough to hear their conversation. Even though it was practically torture, he just needed to know where the two of them stood with each other.

"I have a question," Harley's voice was soft but playful.

"Shoot."

"Why do you let me call you Jesse when everyone else calls you McCree?"

McCree let out a chuckle. "Maybe I like the way it sounds coming out of those pretty lips of yours."

"Oh really?" Her voice was breathy. Hanzo felt sick again.

"Yes really. Though surely not the only thing I'd like to hear from those lips."

"Well alright then…" She paused for what was obviously effect. "…Jesse."

Hanzo looked around desperately for something he could break, but the beautiful ornate garden was no place for another one of his fits. He had to continue swallowing the swirling mess of rage and discomfort and pain and desire that threatened to burst out of him at any moment. He had no idea how he was going to be able to train with her, but he didn't have an option.

After a deep breath, he stepped around the corner to tell Harley to come with him, but the sight he was met with knocked the air out of his lungs. Neither Harley nor McCree noticed him standing there, just a few feet away from them. Harley's back was pressed up against the wall and McCree was standing over her, leaning into her with his whole body. They kissed with fervor; breathing heavily with the odd muffled sound of pleasure escaping them. Hanzo's entire body felt numb as he watched for what couldn't have been more than few seconds but what felt like an eternity. Finally he was able to regain his composure – though he was sure he was extremely red in the face – and loudly cleared his throat.

Both of them jumped a little at the noise, breaking apart instantly. Harley flushed several deep shades of red and looked at the ground, while McCree laughed awkwardly and tugged on his belt buckle to shift his pants. Hanzo simply stared at them, deadpan.

"Begging your pardon," McCree was the first to break the silence. "Didn't think anyone would be back here to be honest."

"I came for Harley," Hanzo forced the words out, trying to hide how strained his voice felt. "You are going to be leaving with Winston and I to help the others in Dorado."

Harley's head snapped up. "What?!"

"Winston insisted your abilities will be needed there."

"But… I… I didn't think…"

"We have a few hours before our departure," Hanzo continued, looking past her instead of directly at her. "I've been asked to spend them training you as much as possible, since we haven't fully explored all your powers."

"Why aren't we all going?" McCree cut in.

"You'll have to take that up with Winston."

McCree's lip twitched like he was going to say something but thought better of it. Harley's eyes were wide and frantic. She looked to be on the verge of a panic attack. Hanzo used his distaste to fuel ridding himself of his feelings about her: _how can someone so emotional be trusted on such an important covert mission? Is she going to freak out like this every time we ask her to take something on? I can't believe Winston thinks she's ready to go with us…_ But even he had to admit he didn't fully understand her abilities, and maybe there was something more to it that he hadn't considered. _Still, she should be able to keep a more level head._

"We must begin," Hanzo said firmly when neither of them moved. "The practice range should be ready to use again."

"I'm gonna go have that chat with Winston," McCree turned his attention on Harley, taking her chin between his thumb and forefinger. "You work real hard now. You do your training and I'm gonna see if I can't convince Winston to let me back you up on this mission."

Hanzo suppressed his urge to roll his eyes. Harley gave McCree a little half-smile, and with that he turned around and left, spurs clanking with each step. With him gone, Harley turned back to Hanzo, still wearing her small smile. Even though it was captivating, her lips were still glossy and red from the kissing, and the surge of what he could now only assume was jealousy pounded in his skull.

"Come on," He managed to snap. "We've got a lot of work to do."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Hanzo had managed to keep silent the entire walk to the practice range and even though Harley kept looking like she wanted to say something, she never did. He aggressively pushed the door open with his shoulder and walked straight to the control panel. The sound of the door closing met his ears, followed by Harley's light footfalls. He listened to her advance: she was walking slowly, obviously hesitating a little with each step. It made him frustrated.

"Look, I…" She started to say when she reached the control panel, but Hanzo walked away from her, feigning checking the crack in the floor to make sure all the cement putty had dried and was safe for practice.

"I mean, I just…" She sighed. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" He played dumb, hoping it would hide his feelings better.

"Well, that's uh… quite a thing to walk into," Harley wrung her fingers and looked down. "I guess what I'm saying is you probably think less of me now, and I'm sorry. I keep giving you such bad impressions of me."

"Oh," Hanzo stalled, unsure of how to respond appropriately.

"And I'm sorry for getting mad earlier too," She tacked on, almost like an afterthought. "Your brother is missing, that must be really hard after… um… well… what happened between you. I mean, I don't know the details, but it seems like it was bad, and I shouldn't be adding to the stress when it's pretty clear you're already having trouble dealing with…"

She had obviously started rambling out of nervousness, still staring steadfastly at the ground. It was endearing, even Hanzo had to admit that. Her adorable embarrassment and inability to deal with it was already starting to dull the anger and pain he had been feeling. Being in her company alone pushed the images of her and McCree from his mind and instead had him focusing on the way she shifted her weight back and forth as she spoke, a gentle sway that betrayed her anxiousness. _Dammit, she has to be so cute, doesn't she_? Without really thinking about it, he reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder. She looked at his hand first, then up at him, with a confused look on her face.

"Let's just get to training, shall we?" Those weren't the words he wanted to say, but the work they had to do would hopefully be enough distraction to get them both grounded again.

"Okay," She offered the hint of a smile. Hanzo felt the familiar prick of annoyance with himself in the back of his head as the look on her face gave him a warm feeling in his stomach. _Here I am always thinking how Harley is unable to control her emotions, bouncing back and forth between extremes… Now look who's talking_ … He chided himself internally, trying to keep his straight face as she started to smile a little more broadly. He noticed his hand was still on her shoulder and he quickly withdrew it, though not without noting how warm her bare skin had been against his palm. Self-conscious, he walked back to the control panel and started up the training program. The robots came out and waited.

"I suspect Winston wants to use you for incapacitation," Hanzo speculated, regaining his focus on their duties. "First of all, since the armies present in the western hemisphere are people, not Omnics, we are obviously going to do our best to avoid a bloodbath. Second, if we kill too many Talon agents, they'll likely call for reinforcements, and we will have a much larger problem on our hands. So, we are going to have you disrupt them."

"That sounds like an awful lot of responsibility," Harley's tone indicated she was joking, but her jaw muscles were tight. "What if I screw up?"

"Mistakes are a part of battle," Hanzo found his voice coming out soft and gentle; he could tell she was actually quite nervous. "It is how you adapt to your mistakes, not whether you make them, that determines your skill and value in a crisis."

"Huh…" Harley scratched the back of her head.

"On our first day of training you showed me how you could make someone float."

"Yeah, by shifting the poles in the magnetic field around them," Her eyes seemed to light up as she explained. "It doesn't last long though."

"It shouldn't need to," Hanzo gestured toward the robots. "Show me."

He watched with intense fascination as Harley repeated her behavior from the first time they'd trained together. She stared, clearly concentrating, at the robot labeled "1" and lifted her hand into the air. The robot was swiftly lifted from its feet and floated for a few moments before it came crashing to the floor. She moved on to the second, third and fourth robots, one after the other, in the same manner. When all of them were lying on their sides or back, she turned to Hanzo, grinning broadly. He bit the inside of his cheeks to keep from smiling back. Instead, he nodded in approval, and turned back to the control panel to get the robots back on their feet.

"That was good," Hanzo told her without too much syrupy approval in his voice, though he did want to be encouraging. "However, I'd like to see you do that to all of them at once."

"What?" Harley looked at him, confused. "That's not how it works…"

"Time is going to be of the essence," He told her, unable to keep himself from looking straight into her eyes. "Besides, unlike these robots, a guard will notice if his friends go flying up in the air, and he likely will not wait for the same to happen to him. Now, try again."

"But…"

"Try again," He knew he was being firm with her but she needed the push. "Now."

With a look somewhere between unease and determination, Harley turned to face the robots. She used both hands this time, dragging them upwards slowly through the air as if she were balancing weights on her palms. At first, nothing came of it. The robots didn't budge. Hanzo frowned a little. But then, with a grunt, she pushed her arms straight upward, and all four dummies flipped into the air. They crashed down a moment later, staying suspended a much shorter time than when she had made them float individually. Still, it was good progress.

Hanzo made her repeat the drill over a few times until she no longer seemed so labored in getting them all up. Her pale cheeks were flushed pink, but the expression on her face was growing more confident by the second, so he didn't feel as bad.

Since he'd already seen that she was quite good at controlling her ability to shake the ground, he didn't ask her to practice that one again. Besides, he had no intention of falling over again. Instead, he decided to focus on the one thing he hadn't yet experienced.

"You have not yet shown me your namesake."

"Hm?" Harley looked over at him, orange hair swirling around her head with the motion.

"Blackout. You said you could cause temporary blindness, did you not?"

"Oh, that," Her face fell a little. "Yeah, I can."

"Perfect," Hanzo pressed a button on the control panel and the robots mechanically chugged back to their place inside the walls. "However, since this is something you can't exactly practice on robots… You'll have to do it to me."

Harley's eyes bulged. "N-No, I couldn't…"

"It's fine," He assured her, stepped into the arena where the robots had been only a few moments earlier. "It _is_ temporary?"

"Yes…" The young woman seemed to have lost the energy she'd just been carrying after toppling the dummies so many times. "I just… It's not exactly… I mean I have it under control, it's just… It's not the most pleasant thing. It'll probably be painful."

"And?" Hanzo almost snorted. "Pain is nothing new to me."

"But _I_ don't want to hurt you."

Harley's words felt like fire engulfing his heart. He stood a few feet away from her, mouth very slightly agape, trying to collect himself. The way in which she'd carefully emphasized the phrase, the delicate softness of each word spilling over her lips, the way her lower lids had come up and her eyebrows had come down in an expression of pure, unadulterated concern. It was the most he'd felt someone cared about his well-being in ages. Truly cared, beyond his utility in battle. More than just patching up wounds and sending him back to the battlefield. More than repairing a lost bond just because they were family. No, this was genuine.

"Hanzo?" Her voice shook him out of his trance. "You okay?"

"Yes, yes," He stammered, waving his hand. "You will practice it on me, end of discussion." He tried to keep his voice even, though his burning heart felt like it might leap into his throat at any moment. Harley grimaced, but nodded.

Hanzo stood in the centre, looked at her, and waited. It was hardly noticeable at first, but her hands began to glow a dull orange color. As the intensity of the glowing increased, it became almost the same shade as her hair. The last thing he remembered seeing was Harley thrusting her hands towards him. After that, the only thing he was aware of was the violent shaking in his vision, and a white-hot pain behind his eyes. He was vaguely aware of shapes and colors in the room but he certainly couldn't focus on anything as the feeling intensified. The pain was sharp and felt like his head was going to explode. Without meaning to, he let loose a loud groan and crumpled forward, landing on his hands and knees. It was gone a moment later, but he couldn't move right away. He blinked several times, trying to get his focus back. The pain was all but a memory, and yet he felt extremely disoriented.

Suddenly, Harley was practically standing on top of him. "I'm so sorry, I tried to tell you…"

"It's nothing," Hanzo gasped for air, not realizing he'd stopped breathing.

"Oh god," She dropped to her knees in front of him. "Why did I let you talk me into that, I can't believe I did that to you… Are you okay?"

His attention was abruptly rapt as he felt her hands on his face, tilting his head upwards, trying to pull him a little more upright. Her palms were a little sweaty but the skin was still creamy smooth and soft underneath. He tried to ignore the sensation as he forced himself to sit up on his knees. Harley was studying his face, looking into his eyes, like she was scanning for damage. She was closer than she'd possibly ever been to him; he could smell a faint floral scent on her and fought to control his breathing so it wouldn't appear like he was sniffing her.

"I'm fine," He assured her, already feeling strong again. If he didn't know better, he could have sworn her fingers lingered on his face until he started to stand up. "How many people can you affect at once with that?"

"It's an area effect as far as I know," She stood up as well, eyeing him sideways. "It should do the same thing to anyone within a ten meter radius."

"Good."

"So now what?"

Hanzo paused to think before replying. "How is your aim?"

"What do you mean?" Harley cocked her head to the side before the gears clicked. "Oh! With a gun?"

"Yes."

"Well, I passed the tests when I first started the program…"

"When was the last time you fired a weapon?"

She looked at the ground and shuffled her feet a little. "A long time. Months maybe."

"Then that is what we will do next," Hanzo walked towards the equipment storage room, fascinated at how the effects of Harley's attack had worn off so cleanly it was as if she hadn't even done it at all. It would be perfect for an escape, if they needed it. From within the storage room he produced a pistol, a box of ammunition and an old training bow. He had left Storm Bow back in his room and he decided it was unnecessary to get his good bow when they were simply practicing.

"Here," He tossed the unloaded pistol to her once he was within range. Harley fumbled a little, almost dropping the weapon, but ultimately caught it between her arms. "You'll need these as well."

Hanzo handed her the box of ammunition and watched with a mixture of amusement and impatience as she struggled with the old gun to get the clip out and load it. When she finally managed to get everything in place, she looked up at him for further instruction. He pushed the button on the control panel for the robots, but one of the panels seemed to be stuck. It was an old range, but that had never happened before. He clicked his tongue in annoyance; he didn't have time to be dealing with this when every second before the mission was precious.

As if on cue, Harley dropped the gun, sending it skidding across the floor. Fortunately the safety was on so no shot was fired, but Hanzo snapped his head to look at her. She took a few steps towards it but suddenly she teetered like she'd tripped on something – almost in exactly the same way she'd tripped the first night they met. Like a flash Hanzo moved in and caught her, one arm across her stomach and the other on her back to stabilize her.

"What happened?!" He asked frantically, still holding onto her. She seemed to be shaking.

"I…" She muttered, barely audible. "It's nothing. I'm clumsy."

"I find that difficult to believe," Hanzo started to release her but she swayed again and gripped his arm. He could hear his heart beating in his ears. His mind raced to take stock of where his hands were: one holding her waist, and one still on her back. _Okay, that's fine_ , he told himself, though his mouth felt dry and he could once again smell her hair.

"It's complicated," She said, parroting the same words she'd said to him when they trained on the rooftops. He knew this had something to do with whatever she'd been telling Symmetra the night he caught her crying. It was obviously something she didn't want to talk about, but it was also something that was interfering with her ability to perform, and that could cause serious issues to arise if it happened at an inopportune moment. _This is more than just clumsiness. No Overwatch recruiter in their right mind would allow someone plainly clumsy through, and certainly not to work with our team_. She seemed stable enough again so he backed away from her abruptly, caught up in his train of thought. _That kind of thing will get her killed if she can't control it. And maybe not just her. It could get us all killed._

Part of him felt bad about the frown that came over his face – the very look of disapproval – but a small part of him was also relieved that this "complication" was washing away the intoxication of holding her close. It wasn't appropriate.

"Fine then," He walked away from her to check why that one panel wasn't sliding open to allow the robotic dummies out. "If you feel so strongly about keeping… whatever it is from me, then I won't ask again."

As soon as the words left his mouth he realized how passive-aggressive he sounded. _Of course I'm curious to know, but I don't have to act like a child._ But it was no use; he _was_ angry that should would apparently tell Symmetra immediately about whatever was causing this problem but wouldn't tell him. _More jealousy_ , he snarled internally. He hated the way she made him feel: distracted from his work, untrustworthy and totally invisible. Her footsteps followed him and he gritted his teeth. Without looking at her he fingered the wall panel that was supposed to be open, trying to keep his vision from blurring with a surge of unfamiliar conflicting emotions as she got near him again.

"Listen, it's not like that, it's…"

"We will have to make do without this one for target practice," Hanzo interrupted her, giving up on the panel. It had probably shorted during Harley's last earthquake and he didn't have time to fix it at the moment. Still keeping his eyes off her he headed back towards the controls to release the other training robots. This time, however, there were no following footsteps. When he got to the other side of the room he glanced over his shoulder and saw her still standing where he'd left her, across the floor. She looked a little angry. Her hands were balled into fists at her sides.

"Are you ready to begin?" Hanzo asked flatly.

"No," Harley folded her arms across her chest.

"Excuse me?"

"What's going on with you today?" She took a few steps forward and stopped.

Hanzo turned around. "What?"

"We had a perfectly good time training yesterday. We _were_ having a perfectly good time training today," She stepped again. "It felt like we've been getting along well and leaving that bad first impression behind us."

"And?"

"And?!" She repeated back, taking several more steps toward him, rapidly closing the distance. "And you've been acting weird and I'm sorry, but you're kind of being a jerk. I'm just trying to apologize to you, and you're cutting me off and ignoring me. Earlier today I was just trying to be nice and you decided to fight with me! I'd really like us to get along – especially since now we're doing this mission together – and you're making it really hard! Why? Just tell me why."

Hanzo felt like he'd been stunned into silence. He searched his brain for an appropriate response, something between the truth and a lie; something that was true by nature but omitted the parts he was still wrestling with himself about. Harley continued to stare at him, rigid with anger, as she advanced on him even more. His feet were frozen in place despite his overwhelming desire to back away from her. He felt like he was being ripped in half. One dragon who wished to lash out right back at her, snarl and snap until she hated him so he wouldn't have to try to figure out his feelings because she'd never look at him again. One dragon who wished to apologize, make an excuse about having not slept the night before, or about Genji's absence, and who could go on pretending like that forever because that seemed the simplest solution. And between the two of them was a wreck of a man who, when he really thought about it, just wanted to be honest and tell her every thought that had banged its way through his head and heart the last few days. His throat was so dry he couldn't even properly swallow. She looked up at him expectantly from less than a few feet away now.

He opened his mouth, unsure of exactly was about to come out of it, but fortunately he didn't have to find out because the sound of the door thudding open interrupted him. Both he and Harley looked up to see natural light streaming in through the open entrance, and the familiar silhouette wearing a cowboy hat in the middle of it.

"Jesse?" Harley asked, even though it was clearly him. McCree came into the range, spurs clanking and echoing the mostly-empty building with every step. He didn't look very happy, which made Hanzo – in spite of himself – feel a little better.

"Bad news darling," He started without greeting either of them. "Winston says I can't take off with you three. He reckons Mei and DVa are gonna need some help around here and since I technically got the most seniority… guess I'm stick here for the time being."

Harley had turned her back on Hanzo to face McCree so he couldn't see her facial expression, but she cooed a few platitudes about her disappointment. She seemed a little more stiff around him than before; maybe getting caught kissing out in broad daylight made her a little more wary of how she interacted with him in the presence of others.

"What's that?" McCree pointed to the pistol which was still lying on the floor.

"Oh, Hanzo and I were just about to do some target practice," Harley replied, her tone once again its usual chipper, light-hearted self. Either the cowboy's mere being here was enough to completely reverse her mood, or she was an excellent pretender.

"Well shoot, you should have told me!" McCree grinned widely at her before turning his attention to Hanzo. "You don't mind if I take it from here? No offense to you personally, friend, but if anyone is gonna be showing anyone how to hit a squirrel between the eyes from a hundred yards away that'd be me."

"Be my guest," Hanzo knew his voice was curt and didn't care. "I have other preparations to attend to. Harley, I assume I can collect you when we are ready to depart?"

"Yeah, definitely," She nodded, though her eyes were flickering back to McCree, who was twirling his revolver around one finger. "Just let me know when I need to be ready and I'll be there."

Hanzo left the practice bow leaning against the control panel and crossed the floor of the practice range, eager to be out of the sickening presence of the two of them interacting. He heard metal scraping as the robots booted up, ready to be fired on. As Hanzo neared the door, a thought occurred to him. Even though he knew it was likely not the most professional thing to say, he was so tired he just couldn't help but calling back to them.

"Remember we are short on time. It would be wise if you would simply stick to target practice, for the time being."


	12. Chapter 12

**(Authors note: So whoops this chapter got really long because I didn't think there was a truly appropriate stopping place for a while. So enjoy this super long chapter! PS. I am not the best at writing action scenes so please feel free to give me honest feedback on any of this, I don't know why but I kind of struggled with a lot of the content in this. Anyway I'm done babbling now. Read on! :D)**

 **Chapter 12**

"How are you feeling?" Winston's booming voice carried from his seat in the cockpit all the way to the back passenger area of the small jet. It seemed DVa had agreed to let them borrow her brand new, expensive, top-of-the-line aircraft in order to get to Dorado as quickly as possible, but Hanzo had no idea how Winston had managed to convince her to loan it out. She was usually pretty protective of her equipment, and the jet probably cost a small fortune.

Hanzo couldn't hear Harley's reply; she was standing behind Winston, leaning on his seat, while Hanzo sat near the very back. They hadn't exchanged any words since the practice range; even when he'd gone to collect her she simply followed, completely silent. He suspected she was still angry about his cold manner and the way he'd neglected to answer her impossible question about why he behaved that way.

He glanced around, admiring the luxury of the jet's interior, though it didn't come without a pang of what was perhaps nostalgia for the life he no longer had. He remembered what it felt like to be rich, unquestioning as a child of where the money had come from, and uncaring when he was a teenager. Back when he was to become leader of the Shimada Empire, his focus was on training and becoming a ruthless warrior – basking in the luxuries would come when he was old.

Despite his near-forty years, Hanzo didn't feel old yet. He worked hard to keep the energy and performance he'd had since he was a teen. His spirit was conflicted though. He had the experience of so much battle, so many experiences all over the globe, and yet when it came to personal growth…

He reflected on all the women he'd pushed away – or had pushed away from him – as a young man. When he was still working to inherit his birthright, many options had presented themselves but few were taken. It wasn't that he'd never experienced physical closeness, but when he really reflected he didn't think he'd ever felt a genuine sense of love for anybody, other than perhaps his family. But that was a taught love, an unconditional love, a love that didn't grow from somewhere deep within his heart because it was always there from the beginning. He had to love his family, but loving another person as a romantic partner? The thought was still strangely foreign to him.

Hanzo examined the curve of Harley's back as she leaned all her weight on Winston's seat back. The skin exposed between her cropped top and her skirt was pale and inviting, and Hanzo had to bite down on the inside of his cheeks to keep his thoughts going any further.

"How are you doing back there?" Winston now called to him, shaking him completely free of his thoughts.

"Fine," He answered plainly. "How much longer?"

"Not much," Winston tapped something on the console. "Less than an hour probably."

Hanzo leaned back into his chair and closed his eyes. He'd tried to take a nap in the time Harley was practicing with McCree, but his mind was racing and he couldn't seem to calm down enough to lie in the bed for more than a few minutes, much less sleep. He'd never been much of a napping person anyway. However, with the white noise of the jet's engines and the gentle sway every now and again as they hit an air current, he could feel himself nodding off.

The familiar thudding of landing gear forced Hanzo awake and he looked around himself, groggy, trying to get his bearings. Harley was sitting beside him now, buckled in and looking at something on her communications device. He looked down at his own chest and noticed the seatbelt that hadn't been there before.

"Did you…?"

"Yeah," Harley said softly without looking up. "I didn't want to wake you but Winston figured the landing would be bumpy. You were really asleep there."

 _Was I?_ Hanzo's head thudded to confirm he must have been asleep for at least a short while. He supposed it must have been close to an hour, based on Winston's previous time estimate and the fact that they were now landing. He grimaced and rubbed his temples.

"You okay?" She still didn't look directly at him but must have noticed his discomfort from her periphery. _Apparently even when she's mad she's still nice_. It was infuriating and humbling all at the same time, and Hanzo had no idea how to react. He felt awkward just sitting in silence and despite his cold shoulder and snarky remark as he left the practice range, he didn't want to be silently feuding with her while they were trying to get a job done.

"I'm sorry," He tried to get the words out quickly and as a result they may have blended together a little bit.

Harley's blue eyes flickered upwards. "What was that?"

"I am sorry," He articulated. "For upsetting you earlier. It was not my intention."

"It sort of feels like our whole relationship is founded on apologizing to each other, huh?" Harley smiled broadly and Hanzo felt relieved, until her expression changed to concern. "I just wish you'd tell me why half the time you're nice and the other half you're…"

"Perhaps later," Hanzo unbuckled himself as the plane came to a full stop. He hated to cut her off again when that was part of the reason she'd been upset, but it wasn't the time to have a heart to heart. With any luck, he could skillfully evade it the rest of the mission and hopefully by the time they arrived back at Hanamura he could think up something good enough to tell her.

"Let's not waste any time," Winston came into the passenger area after shutting down the cockpit and all the controls. "Our key mission here is rescue and extract. If we happen to come across any information that may be useful then copy it onto your devices and get out. Don't make recon your priority; we already lost that opportunity. We just need to make sure we don't lose anyone."

Hanzo pulled his quiver over his shoulders and gripped his bow tightly. He watched Harley clip a pistol holster to her leg and absent-mindedly wondered how her training with McCree had gone. Winston popped the hatch and the three of them slipped out under the cover of night, slinking between the trees of some kind of forest. A few hundred feet away from where they stood, Pharah's jet could be seen glinting between the branches. They were just outside the city. The building of Talon's base – formerly an Overwatch base – could even be seen in the distance.

At Hanzo's instruction they were quiet as they hurried forward; the tension in the air made it seem like it wasn't just him who was eager to get the mission over with. A creased forehead and the subtle sound of grinding teeth betrayed Harley's feelings. Winston was large and clunky, and though he could leap through the air with grace, Hanzo still had his doubts about sneaking the gorilla into an enemy base. Not that they had a choice.

The moment they came within firing range of the building Hanzo fired a sonic arrow near the door they intended to enter. Surprisingly, no guards were positioned there. Their absence made Hanzo uncomfortable. Still, he signaled for them to move forwards, then darted off to the side, moving into a more strategic position to cover his allies should anyone come around the side of the building or down from the rooftop. Harley and Winston made it to the door without incident, but from where Hanzo was standing, he couldn't see them trying to open it – instead, they seemed to be staring down at something. He checked six points around him and, convinced no one was coming, moved up to the door.

"Is there a problem?"

"Yes and no…" Winston gestured to the electronic pad used to lock the doors. It was still snapped in half, and when he pushed on the door gently, it opened a crack. "They haven't replaced this lock."

Red flags sprung up inside Hanzo's head. "That cannot be an accident."

"I agree," Winston huffed, frowning. "There's no one Talon would notice six Overwatch agents break into their base and not check all the entrances. We should find another way in, this looks like a trap to me."

Hanzo checked his six points again, ears tuned to the slightest sound from anywhere near them. Harley's breathing was a little heavier than normal. He glanced up at the building.

"I will go to the roof to see if we can get in there," Hanzo didn't wait for a reply and immediately scaled the building, gripping poorly-laid bricks and barricaded windows to help with his ascent. If he could find a rooftop entrance they were much more likely to surprise any guards. Before fully pulling himself onto the roof he peered over the ledge, only exposing his eyes and the hair that stood out from the top of his head. There didn't seem to be any guards, so he heaved himself over the lip of the rooftop, landing elegantly with as little noise as possible. Checking his points again, he quickly spotted the stairwell door and fired another sonic arrow toward it; there wasn't anyone behind the door or on the first flight of stairs. It still felt suspicious that the back entrances would be so unguarded after a break-in, but unfortunately, Hanzo didn't have too much time to wonder. Instead, he lifted his communications device to his lips and whispered for his allies to join him.

He watched and listened while Harley and Winston made their way to the roof. Harley's ability to levitate herself was, like Hanzo's climbing, completely silent, but Winston's jetpack made a fair amount of noise. When he landed the three of them stood perfectly still, waiting to see if they'd attracted attention. When no one came, they relaxed.

"Where is everyone?" Harley breathed. "It's so quiet…"

"That is a good question," Hanzo muttered, testing the door handle. It was locked.

"Here, let me," Winston fiddled with the lock, which opened in a matter of moments. "You know, I don't know if they even changed the code on this one."

"Right, this used to be an Overwatch base…" Harley squinted into the dark stairwell before advancing after Winston. "So you guys must know your way around here. That's actually kind of a relief. I totally forgot Talon took this place over after the war started…"

"Winston is familiar," Hanzo corrected, following Harley and closing the door behind them. "I was never stationed here."

"Oh…" She sounded like that made her nervous.

As he followed her down the stairs, watching her orange mop bounce with every step, Hanzo had the odd urge to comfort her. Tell her some reassuring nonsense, pat her on the head, maybe give her a hug… _What on earth is wrong with me_? He made a face like he'd just bitten a lemon, realizing that he was allowing himself to become distracted from a highly dangerous infiltration mission just because of a girl. _She's just a girl. Just another girl_. He told himself, though he still felt his eyes coming back to watching her hips sway after every six point check.

Winston abruptly stopped. Harley almost crashed into him. The gorilla pointed down, at the door they were about to come up on in another half-flight of stairs. Hanzo heard it too. There were voices; unfamiliar, low-speaking, and the distinct whirring noise of computers. He listened more intently to determine how many people were in the room as he couldn't afford to have them hear his arrow hit the floor or wall. It sounded like there were three, maybe four. They were whispering.

Hanzo moved past Harley and Winston, nimbly making his way down the stairs. He tested the door: it was unlocked, and he pressed his body into it, holding on tightly, trying to make as little noise as possible. With the door ajar, he could make out the voices clearly. _Definitely three._ _That's no problem_ , he smirked to himself, feeling in his element.

Moving back up the stairs like a cat, he whispered to Harley. "Three."

She looked back at him with wide eyes.

"We practiced this but hours ago," He said, trying his best to sound reassuring. "You are fully capable. When the door is open, reverse the poles."

Harley nodded hesitantly but followed him down the stairs. She leaned against the wall on one side of the door and Hanzo resumed his position against it. He looked up at her again and couldn't help but smile. Her face lit up and she looked ready to go.

Hanzo kicked the door open and rushed into the corner of the room, out of Harley's line of sight. She stepped into the doorway right as the agents turned around and suddenly they were all in the air, out of reach of the alarm triggers. After a second they crashed to the floor. Like lightning with his expert reflexes, Hanzo dashed around the room, knocking each of them unconscious with his bow. It wasn't his preferred way to fight, and he may not have been as quick or nimble as Genji would have been, but he could make do in a melee battle when it was required.

"Good work," Winston came in and closed the door behind him. "Did they get an alarm off?"

"No," Hanzo turned to look at Harley, who was looking uneasily at the unconscious agents. "But I don't think we should stay here."

"Don't plan to," Winston was already tapping away furiously at their computers; he seemed to have schematics of the building pulled up. "I just need to locate where they might be keeping Lena. Try to find out something about the mind-control, would you?"

Hanzo didn't need to be told twice and sat down at the second machine. He jammed an extraction device into the computer – it wasn't something Overwatch exactly condoned, ripping data in this way, but under the circumstances they had little other options. The extractor worked by pulling files with certain keywords, codes or algorithms and loading them into the hard drive within the device. Hanzo had no idea what Mei and Winston had come up with to extract the files and he didn't much care… until Genji's name flashed on the screen. He quickly clicked the folder and several photos and documents appeared on the screen, including one labeled "Nu_Utopaea". _Utopaea. That's the name of the city Vishkar built after the first Omnic Crisis_. Hanzo enlarged the document while the extraction device continued to pull data.

As he scanned the dense document, drawn up like a legal contract, trying to only read what was important, Harley came up behind him. She leaned on the back of his chair the way she'd leaned on Winston's in the jet. Her hair brushed against his neck and Hanzo felt goosebumps spread all down his arms. Unfortunately he didn't have much more opportunity to be distracted by her close proximity as he found a section that directly referred to Genji. _Their plans are to… Oh no, no this can't happen… We have to find the others and now_. Hanzo sprung to his feet aggressively, nearly knocking Harley over in the process.

"We must go!" Hanzo grabbed his bow and headed for the door.

"Wait, Hanzo, wait!" Winston turned around in his chair. "I have all the possible locations for where they're holding Lena as well as the others. You should know better than to go charging out there! What's gotten into you?"

"Read that," He pointed to the computer. "We may already be too late."

Winston's eyes traveled back and forth as he read the paragraph, his face slowly turning from confusion, to disgust, to anger. He snarled loudly when he finished and yanked the extractor out of the computer, stuffing it into his bag as he turned off the computer he'd been using. Harley looked back and forth between them as they reached for the door.

"Hey, what's going on?" She asked in a higher-than-normal-pitched voice. Their sudden frantic pace must have thrown her off, but Hanzo couldn't consider her feelings right now. This was bigger than them.

"These are the possible coordinates," Winston showed Hanzo a diagram on his communications device, acting as if he hadn't even heard Harley. "I narrowed it down to four different holding areas you might find the others. You'll have to move fast; if these three wake up and sound the alarm we'll have more trouble on our hands, and we can't afford the trouble we've already got."

"Done," Hanzo nodded at Harley. "You are with me while Winston attempts to find Lena."

"What did that document say?"

"I'll explain it as we go," Hanzo answered impatiently, stamping his foot like a horse to let her know he meant business. "Come on!"

Harley hustled towards him and the three of them headed down the next flight of stairs in silence. As soon as they reached the next floor unimpeded, without a single trace of any other Talon agents, Hanzo knew they were already in over their heads. This wasn't going to be easy, and he worried that Harley – who he was counting on for area control – wasn't going to be able to keep up. He wanted to believe in her but even he felt shaken by what he'd just read.

"You know where the rendezvous is," Winston tapped his ear. "Radio if something goes off course. Same for you Harley."

"Be careful!" She said, but Winston had already taken off down a long corridor, leaving Hanzo and Harley to go the other way. Harley looked up at Hanzo with her big blue eyes, obviously searching him for answers that he didn't know how to give. He fired a sonic arrow down the dark hall and then motioned her to walk close to him as it revealed the area was free of guards. For whatever reason the entire wing of the building seemed unlit, and she bumped into him a few times as they walked, her body brushing up against the bare arm and shoulder his tunic exposed. He swallowed hard, pulling his mind back to the task at hand, and the incredible danger they were potentially about to walk into. He hoped it was less than he imagined.

"Now can you tell me what's going on?" Harley whispered from the darkness.

"I will try," Hanzo didn't look down at her. "How much did they teach you about the Vishkar Corporation?"

"Mostly just about their attempts to rebuild sustainable living areas after the first Omnic crisis," Her voice was low and seemed calmer. "I always felt like there was a little more to them than that though. The trainers for the initiate program were always a little evasive when it came to answering questions about them… I was hoping to talk with Symmetra about it, she seems so nice."

"That is the basic principle of their operation, yes," Hanzo fired another arrow down the hallway, pinging back the continued lack of Talon agents. "Overwatch, however, has suspected for some time that Vishkar has been working on other projects that they do not expose to the public."

"Like what?"

"Their architects bend reality. Winston has believed for some time now that they may be attempting to create some kind of virtual reality generator that would allow for everyone to live in their own perfect world. This is of course only based on minimal evidence."

"Why don't you ask Symmetra?"

Hanzo snorted. "We have, many times. After the last recall Vishkar put her at a distance. In spite of her talent, we believe they questioned her loyalty to their vision."

"Oh…"

"But the document I just saw… it seems there is even more to the theories about Vishkar's side projects than we ever imagined."

"Like what?"

In the darkness Hanzo could just make out that they were coming up on the end of the hallway. The keypad on the door there glowed a dull blue, displaying the number "41". One of the possible locations Winston had given him was room 40, which would be on the other side of this room according to the schematic he'd briefly seen. Hanzo reached out to touch the pad when he stopped, a sound from the other side of the door capturing his attention. Harley must have heard it too because she moved up against the wall, flattening her body into the shadows. Hanzo snatched an arrow out of his quiver.

It sounded like someone shouting. It grew louder every moment, leading Hanzo to believe that whoever was yelling was coming their way. He leaned back against the wall opposite Harley, nocking his arrow. Heavy, angry footsteps were barreling towards the door.

"That was the deal!" A male voice screamed from just on the other side of the wall. "War now, peace later! When this is over you'll have your perfect world, but you made the deal that you would carry out our plan first!"

The door flew open, nearly hitting Harley in the face. She stayed still. Two men walked through the door, the one in front holding a communication device up to his masked face. They were both dressed in black from head to toe, wearing what looked like motorcycle helmets with the jaw area removed. Both of them had rifles strapped across their backs and pistols at their sides. They seemed completely oblivious to Hanzo and Harley; obviously they were more preoccupied with whoever they were speaking to. Hanzo knew he only had one shot since the communications device was already in the man's hand and he could instantly call for backup.

He fired the nocked arrow, landing it square in the back of the yelling man's knee. He went down with a howl, the device flying out of his hand. His partner turned around just in time to take an arrow to the shoulder before Hanzo was in his face. The man swung with his uninjured arm, Hanzo ducked and rolled behind him. One carefully placed blow to the back of the head and he was silent on the floor. The man who had been yelling was slowly crawling towards his communicator but Hanzo placed a foot on his back between his shoulder blades and pressed down. The man's body went limp.

"In here," Hanzo grabbed Harley by the wrist and pulled her through the still-open door into the room, closing the door behind him. There was a familiar clicking noise as the electronic lock went off.

"What the hell was he talking about?" Harley gasped as Hanzo took stock of the room they were in. It was a fairly small room with little in it, just a table and some video screens on the far wall. It was likely an interrogation room for the adjoining holding area. He didn't reply to her question, impatient to check the next room but logically knowing they couldn't just barrel into it. He took a deep breath to steady himself, just as he had always been trained.

He reached over his shoulder for another sonic arrow but his hand simply grasped at air. _What the…_? Hanzo pulled his quiver off and saw that it was completely empty. _My arrows must have fallen out when I rolled past that guard_. He clicked his tongue in annoyance and walked to the door they'd come through so he could collect his arrows. The door handle didn't move when he pulled it.

"What?" He snarled, tugging harder.

"What's the matter?" Harley appeared beside him.

Hanzo hesitated a moment, ashamed of his stupid mistake and furious about the situation he'd put himself in.

"I lost my arrows in that scuffle," He spoke flatly. "And the door will not open."

"Shit…"

He didn't think he'd ever heard Harley use so many curse words. _She must be stressed out, and I'm certainly not helping_ , he growled internally. _I'm supposed to be the experienced one, and I'm simply guiding her into more and more danger while being more and more unprepared. Not to mention the fact that all of our teammates might already be dead or…_

"Can we get out the other door?" Harley ventured, sounding hesitant to make the suggestion.

"Perhaps," Hanzo spoke through clenched teeth, totally losing the calm he'd had mere moments earlier. "But there is no way to know what is on the other side now. We are now moving blindly, and unarmed."

"Unarmed?" Harley gave him an incredulous look. "Hello!"

She waved her hands around dramatically. Hanzo raised one of his eyebrows at her.

"I can still do everything you trained me for," She gave him the hint of a smile. "Plus you can have this."

Harley pulled the pistol out of her holster and handed it to him. The gun felt clunky and heavy in his hand; it had been a long time since he'd used one. _Perhaps it really was better that McCree had been there for target practice instead of me…_

"You cannot fight alone," Hanzo snapped out of his thoughts, back to the reality they were facing.

"Why not?"

"Because the situation has changed; this isn't simply Talon anymore."

"Then tell me what the new situation is," Harley's tone was sharp. "And let me deal with it."

"You cannot just…"

"Hanzo!" Harley snapped. "You were just going on about how we don't have time to waste, how we _have_ to get to the others, how everything is worse than we thought… and now you're going to stand here and argue with me? I don't know if you still think of me as a child or what but you need to snap out of this self-involved delusion _now_."

Her words sliced through him like a blade. He felt his mouth agape and couldn't manage to close it. She looked at him with narrowed eyes, arms folded across her chest. She was right, he had been thinking of her as a child, as an accessory, but not as another soldier in this war. He wanted to apologize but his throat was dry and he didn't think he could manage the words. She was right and he was too angry and humiliated with himself to acknowledge it. His pride was winning the conflict raging within him. Defeated, he leaned back against the nearest wall.

"Look," She continued. "Before we try moving on, why don't you at least tell me what was in the document that made you and Winston freak out like that?"

"It…" Pain seared through Hanzo's head suddenly, a headache born of stress like he'd never felt before. Wincing, he did his best to speak evenly. "It explained that, much like we suspected, Vishkar developed a type of virtual reality that would allow for all people on earth to live in a world they deemed perfect. A world they could control and manipulate in any way they pleased, since the architects would no longer need to bend reality. They would become the reality. And all human beings would be subject to their desires."

"Oh my god…" Harley leaned back against the edge of the table. "But what does that have to do with Talon?"

"Vishkar has done some… questionable things in the past, but they would not brand themselves as terrorists, even for something as big as this," Hanzo rubbed his temples vigorously. "It seems the alternate reality does not take hold on everyone. Vishkar would want to be rid of those people, as they would interfere with their ideal world. However, they themselves would not bring the world to war. Talon on the other hand…"

"So Talon is just going to kill all these people?!"

"It seems that way, though I cannot imagine how they would go about simply killing millions of people. I did not manage to read the entire document, so I do not believe it's quite that straightforward. I was more concerned with Talon's end of the bargain… The only section I read thoroughly was a paragraph that distinctly mentioned Genji's name."

"What? What does Genji have to do with any of this?"

"He represents a medical marvel, a genetically and cybertronically enhanced soldier that even far exceeds the results of the program that Commander Morrison endured," Hanzo paused and bit down on his tongue, trying not to imagine what they would be doing with Genji if he had in fact been captured. "It seemed they were going to use him as some sort of prototype, working off everything Mercy had done to him. They may have never figured it out… but now…"

"Now they have Mercy," Harley's eyes were wide. "Oh my god, we have to find her. I mean find all of them. But we have to find her before they can force her to do anything. We can't face Talon if all their agents are like Genji!"

"And now you know why the outcome looks grim."

"Wait…" Harley snapped her fingers. "What about Tracer? They captured her first."

"I honestly don't know," Hanzo sighed. "Again, I did not manage to read the entire document. I shudder to think what Talon or Vishkar might want with the device she wears."

"Well then let's get going!"

Harley crossed the small room towards the yet-unexplored door. Hanzo didn't move; it felt like someone had nailed his feet to the floor and was slowly driving a spike through his head. He was in poor condition to fight as it was, and now he had to go in blind, with no weapons, and a splitting migraine to top it off. This was not going to be counted as one of his finer moments.

He'd just managed to push himself off the wall as Harley pushed on the door handle. It made the same stubborn clicking noise as when Hanzo had tried to open the other door.

"Uh oh," She turned around to face him, grimacing.

They were stuck.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

"Winston? Winston!"

Hanzo felt like Harley's voice was much louder than normal against his throbbing headache. She kept tapping the button to call out, but it didn't seem that their equipment was working. It seemed stupid that they hadn't figured that Talon would have their base jammed so communication signals that weren't theirs couldn't pass.

He had taken a seat on the floor to try to collect himself and ward off the headache while Harley paced around the small room, trying in vain to contact Winston. No more Talon agents since the ones they'd knocked out had come around either, which only meant one thing to Hanzo: they were already starting on the genetic improvement process. Mercy was probably being held at gunpoint to give up everything she'd done to Genji, and between Talon and Vishkar the resources to accomplish it again would be immediately available. He sighed and wondered if maybe the recall had been a mistake. He'd never thought so before; he fully supported the first recall. But as Overwatch strengthened so did their enemies, as with any organization. Everyone, no matter their motivations, was hungry for power. Hanzo had learned that lesson many times when he was young, observing his father and the crime syndicate that surrounded him. It seemed silly to him to compare Overwatch to the mafia, but the principles were effectively the same.

"Winston!" Harley practically yelled.

Hanzo winced and clutched his head. "Harley, stop."

"But…"

"Just stop," His voice came out weak. "The device clearly doesn't work in here. We will have to wait for someone to come through one of those doors."

For a brief moment Harley looked like she was going to argue, but instead she dropped her hand from her ear and walked back the few steps to where Hanzo was sitting. He was looking at her through narrowed eyes. The light in the room felt harsh.

"Are you okay?" She dropped to her knees in front of him.

"Just a slight headache," He answered, forcing a confident and nonchalant tone. "I'm sure it is simply from adrenaline. It will wear off in a few minutes."

"Are you sure? You look a little sick."

"I am fine."

"You don't have to be so proud," Her voice was soft, gentle, quiet. "It's just me here."

"I'm not…"

"Hanzo," She reached out and touched the hand he was using to rub his temple. "I know we haven't known each other that long, but we've spent enough time together for me to understand that you have a very particular way you want people to see you. And I get it. There are parts of me I hope no one sees. But sometimes we have to let those parts of us out once in a while to breathe… or they'll end up suffocating you. You're allowed to be in pain you know."

He looked into her eyes. She was very sincere, and the poetry of her words caught him off guard. Even though her words made sense, he was hesitant to let any part of him be vulnerable with anyone. All his life, Hanzo had been taught that exposing yourself, becoming vulnerable with another person, opened you up to destruction. People could use information against you. Manipulate you by knowing what makes you tick. But somewhere, behind Harley's shimmering blue eyes, he saw the soul of someone who might truly understand him. Someone who wouldn't judge him or shame him for his choices and thoughts. The very idea of her suddenly terrified him. He looked away.

"The headache is from stress," The words came out almost a whisper. "I have allowed myself to become overwhelmed by our situation, and I am supposed to be calm. I cannot find my center."

Harley adjusted herself into a cross-legged position. "How come?"

"I am uncomfortable being unarmed," The honesty felt sour on his tongue but for some reason he couldn't stop himself from speaking. "I am especially uncomfortable not knowing what's on the other side of the door. I am worried about Genji – about everyone. And…"

Hanzo paused. The air was thick with silence. Harley leaned in a little; he could just make out her features in his peripheral vision. She tilted her head, waiting for him to continue. He swallowed, and then looked straight at her.

"I dislike the idea of being unable to protect you properly."

Harley leaned back, bringing herself into an upright position. Her head was still inclined but her expression had changed from patient and curious to something that Hanzo couldn't quite read. Her forehead was slightly creased and her jaw was set, but it clearly wasn't anger on her face. If anything, it was more like surprise. He immediately regretted saying any of it.

"You don't have to worry about me," She said hesitantly. "I can…"

"It's not that I think you can't do anything," He cut her off sharply. "It's simply… that I think…"

"What?"

Hanzo chewed the inside of his cheek, stalling before finishing the sentence of the corner he'd talked himself into. "I think I owe you that much."

"Oh," Her face softened significantly. "Well, try not to think about it for a minute, and just focus on relaxing, okay?"

He closed his eyes, wondering if there would be a moment where she wasn't on his mind at least somewhat. After all, it had been that way practically since the moment they'd met – not that he would tell her as much. She was still sitting awfully close to him. Even with his eyes closed he was very aware of just how close their bodies were, how her breaths were consistent and calm, how her very presence seemed to soothe him when just hours ago she was driving him insane. His inability to hold onto one particular way he felt about her infuriated him and yet, it also made him feel alive, like he was guessing. It kept him on his toes and he liked that. Like hunting, or in a battle, trying to predict the next move, responding in kind when something unexpected happened.

 _Only you can't respond in kind, at least not the way you want to_ , he sucked in a deep breath as the image of her arms around McCree suddenly appeared in his mind. _Then again, do I even know what I want_? He furrowed his brow, his headache worsening again.

"You're not relaxing," Her tone was playfully accusatory.

"I suppose I have a difficult time relaxing while trapped inside an enemy base," He tossed back in an uncharacteristically playful way, and opened his eyes a crack. _Where did that come from_?

"Alright, how about this," Harley smiled in a way that made Hanzo's chest hurt. "I know you don't like being open about stuff, and I think whatever's going on inside your mind is distracting you from calming down. So how about I tell you some stuff about me, and maybe once you know me a little better, you'll feel more comfortable opening up."

"I suppose…" Hanzo didn't exactly follow her train of thought, but he was extremely curious about her past – especially the source of her powers.

"Well we've got nothing better to do so I guess you're stuck hearing about it," She grinned and tucked her hair behind her ears. "I already told you that I was an engineer before joining Overwatch, right?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, I lived in those labs. I loved it, honestly. I never had much time for a personal life and I didn't really care back then. I wanted to be alone a lot… well, except for being around my twin sister, Michaela. You know what they say about twins, that you kind of end up sharing a brain? We were exactly like that. She was a cybertechnologist though, so maybe we weren't exactly the same. But it was close," Harley got a far-away look in her eyes. "We frequently worked together on personal projects in our spare time. Even though our career paths didn't really mix, we thought the ability to control magnetic fields through cybernetic implants would be immensely interesting. It was an issue getting funding for wild projects though, especially since the disbanding of Overwatch… so we just did it on our own, with scraps from the lab and our own savings. We were actually doing pretty well, honestly."

"Pretty well?" Hanzo raised an eyebrow at her. "You succeeded, obviously."

Harley's eyes slowly moved to meet his; they were glassy. "Yes… and no."

"What do you mean?"

"Michaela was the expert in actually connecting the cybernetic implants, so I had to let her test them out first. We initially started with implants in the hands and feet, and nodes connected to the head in order to assert control. We both had the implants but she put the nodes on first," Harley's voice was beginning to crack, and Hanzo got the distinct sense that this story didn't have a happy ending. "There was a problem… even now I don't know exactly what it was… I'm pretty sure there was a flaw in my design, in the calculations I did when I made them… I'm almost positive we ran too much electricity through it… The nodes… they… they…"

"You don't have to continue," Hanzo quickly interrupted, seeing a few shining wet marks on Harley's face.

"No it's okay," She took a deep breath and wiped her face with her sleeve. "I should be able to talk about this. I have to be able to talk about this. The nodes fried my sister's brain completely, I don't think she felt any pain, thank god. She was probably dead several seconds before her implants overloaded and… they… exploded. Everything exploded. All the monitoring machines, the entire lab that we had rigged for the tests… But for some reason, my implants – probably because they weren't hooked up to the nodes yet – didn't explode. I shouldn't have lived through that. I should have died."

Hanzo wanted to say something reassuring to her but the words didn't come. He was a little overwhelmed by her story, and the mental image it conjured. Pieces were falling into place now: the way she'd cried with Symmetra, the way she'd freaked out when he'd told her she couldn't understand the pain he went through after Genji's incident. She did understand. All too well.

"A chip from one of the nodes hit me in the head," Harley continued. "It was blown off Michaela with such force that it actually embedded itself in my skull. It's just barely touching my brain, actually. The connection allows me to use the implants."

"So that is where the powers come from…" Hanzo could barely breathe out the words. He was truly stunned by her story.

"Yeah," She looked at her lap. "But obviously, because they only work thanks to a freak accident… they're… volatile. At first I had no control over them, and these people – who I eventually learned were Overwatch recruiters – came and brought me to a secure facility where I wouldn't hurt anyone, since my powers were so wild and unpredictable. You have to understand, after the accident, I was a broken person. Like, really broken. The memories I have of that time are scattered and fuzzy. I wasn't even a person, just a shell."

"I… understand that kind of feeling."

"I know you do," Harley reached over and touched his hand without looking up. "They didn't give details, but when they were briefing me on the team I'd be working with and they got to you… They told me you killed your brother, but he lived, and you were redeeming yourself in Overwatch. It gave me hope that I could redeem myself too."

"I am no role model."

"Anyway," She left her hand on top of his but obviously wasn't willing to argue with him. "Even though my powers are mostly under control, because of the way the chip is sitting in my head, it shifts from time to time. When it does I get extremely disoriented. Everything feels like it's moving, I feel like I'm falling… It sucks."

Gears suddenly clicked together in Hanzo's head. "Is that why you trip?"

Her silence was all the answer he needed. He felt sick to his stomach remembering the first day they'd met and how he'd yelled at her. Yelled at her over the result of a traumatic accident. _At least I made the decision to lift the blade to Genji's neck_ , he thought, shaking his head to try to get rid of the feeling like he might cry. _She made no such decision. The pain and misery was thrust on her without her ever intending for it to happen_.

"I'm sorry," He blurted out. Unexpectedly, Harley squeezed his hand for a moment.

"Thank you…"

Hanzo's head and heart were a swirling mess of emotions, but one particular action stood out to him as what he needed to do in that moment. Ignoring everything else but the moment he was taking part in, Hanzo outstretched his arms towards Harley, tapping her shoulders gently to encourage her into the hug. She leaned forward with little hesitation, wrapping her arms around his midsection, placing her head against his shoulder, and cried. He held her close.


	14. Chapter 14

_**(Note from the author: To all my readers, I am so sorry for the delay in updating! I got really sick, then I got really busy, and I had a bit of writer's block... I really hope you enjoy this chapter, and don't worry - I'm back into the swing of things now! I promise I won't make you wait so long again!)**_

 **Chapter 14**

It had seemed like time stopped when he held Harley to his chest, but now that she had calmed down and they both had a renewed sense of urgency to get out of the room, Hanzo could feel himself getting worked up again. He had tried his hand fiddling with the control panels for the locks, but they were complicated – far more complicated than even the fancy locks his father had installed on their mansion – and his struggles proved useless. Worse, the complexity of the codes and the seemingly random encryption of the information displayed on the screen all but confirmed Sombra's involvement with the facility.

"I have an idea," Harley suddenly said, though there was something about the way she said it that made Hanzo think he wasn't going to like it.

"Oh?"

She looked at him sideways. "It's not going to be subtle."

"I believe we are beyond the point of subtlety," He turned to face her properly. "What are you thinking?"

"I think I can use my earthquake vertically," Her voice was quiet. "It's something I never practiced much because when I tried it back when I was in training I… uh… ended up collapsing a room or two. But it would break the doors off their hinges."

Hanzo raised his eyebrows. He had to admit that it was an interesting, unconventional idea, and while it certainly posed a risk it couldn't possibly be more dangerous than sitting in a locked room with no weapons waiting to be taken prisoner. _Besides if she can get both doors off, I can grab my arrows before we advance_. He felt the hint of a smile playing on his lips. She was smart.

"I think we should go forward with that idea," He nodded at her and gestured to the door they had come in through. "Are you able to open that one first? Or both at once?"

"I'll try to do both. I think we're going to be short on time once Talon realizes someone is down here," Harley positioned herself in the middle of the room, then pointed at the table. "You're going to need to get under that."

"Excuse me?"

"If I bring the ceiling down you'll stand a much better chance of living if you're under there," She smiled at him and Hanzo found it almost impossible to argue like that. Still, he feigned a frown and got on his hands and knees so he was covered by the table on all sides.

Harley extended her arms – each of her palms facing a door – and closed her eyes. The familiar vibration still gave Hanzo a pit in his stomach, since he had no idea how well this was going to turn out. He didn't need to wonder for long: with a flick of her wrists, two enormous cracks shot along the floors and up the walls from where Harley stood. The ceiling cracked a little bit as well, but only some dust and a few tiles tumbled down. Both doors were split in two and easily fell out of the door frames.

"We must move quickly," Hanzo sprung out from under the table and was already climbing over the wreckage of the door in order to collect his arrows. He was pleased to see that all the Talon agents they'd taken down were still unconscious. With lightning speed he darted across the floor, picking up his spilled ammunition, and then rushed back to the small room where Harley was waiting, nervously staring down the dark hallway they hadn't explored yet.

"Why isn't anyone coming?" Harley's voice was no more than a whisper.

 _That's a good question_ , Hanzo realized that he didn't even hear footsteps headed in their direction. He fired a sonic arrow down the hallway; it came up empty, that no live bodies were anywhere near this corridor. _Oh god, I hope they haven't already done something to Mercy to force her to begin experimenting on the Talon agents._

"Let's go," He took off at a brisk jog down the hallway, not waiting to see if Harley followed. Her telltale footfalls on the linoleum behind him let him know she wasn't going to stray far from his side, and he liked that knowledge.

They navigated the next few hallways in near-pitch blackness but didn't come across any more bodies – patrolling or dead. Just the thought of what might be going on elsewhere in the building gave Hanzo chills and pressed him forward to check the next room on Winston's list of possible holding cells. Harley was reading out the room numbers in a hushed tone, probably more to herself than to Hanzo, but he appreciated it nonetheless. It allowed him to keep his eyes glued ahead of them as they looked for possible detention areas.

"I think the room we're looking for is in the next wing over," Harley leaned close to Hanzo's ear to talk, her breath warm on his skin. "Straight through those doors." She gestured, just barely visible, to three sets of glass double doors, with lights shining brightly on the other side.

The area she was showing him seemed to be an addition to the building. Everything looked brighter and newer than the places they'd already been, and that gave Hanzo a good clue that this was probably where they'd keep high-profile, high-danger prisoners. Soundlessly he crept up to the doors and pushed one open, listening for anyone in the vicinity. When no footsteps came, he beckoned Harley over, who came up on his side almost instantly. She looked up at him with her large blue eyes, obviously seeking instruction, and he struggled for a moment to find the words lost deep in his throat. Even on an extremely dangerous mission, she still had the ability to take the breath from his lungs. He longed to hug her again. But this wasn't the time for thinking like that.

"Keep alert," He warned as they walked ahead, quickly but quietly. As Harley had suspected, the room number "15" was almost immediately on the other side of the double doors. Unfortunately, it was locked with a keypad that was seemingly even more complex than the one they'd been locked behind before. He tried to remain optimistic, thinking that they'd only use such a difficult lock on Overwatch agents, but he still had no means of opening the door, and he was nervous to risk the same destructive idea they'd used to escape their own tiny prison.

"Do you hear something?" Harley turned on her heel and scrunched up her face.

"Hm?" Hanzo turned his attention to the ambient background noise, which hadn't felt as prominent when they'd walked in as it did now. A low, thundering hum – the unmistakably mechanical sound of hundreds of computers working at once – was almost deafening when he focused on it. He furrowed his eyebrows.

"What do you think that is?"

"Perhaps some kind of server room?"

"I don't know…" Harley took a few steps forward and turned her head a few times, obviously trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from. "I don't think they'd keep a bunch of utility computers in such a nice fancy part of the building."

Hanzo snorted. "Is it really important right now? We should be figuring out how to open this door to check…"

"Shhh!" Harley waved her hand, moving forward a little bit at a time.

"Harley."

"I think it's coming from over here."

"Harley, what are you doing?"

He was getting perplexed and increasingly annoyed by this inexplicable fascination with the sound of computers running. He was especially mad when she rounded the corner and disappeared from his view. He chased after her with a sigh.

Hanzo rounded the corner and almost collided with Harley, who was frozen in place. Before he could ask what on earth was happening, his eyes followed her gaze to the large glass window of an auditorium-like room that was one floor below them: basically a huge open space filled with chairs that was observable from the floor they were on. In each and every seat there was a Talon agent, and every single one of them was wearing a white and blue headpiece that looked sort of like goggles with a headband attached. Hanzo yanked Harley away from the window quickly.

"Oh my god," Harley panted once they were out of view. "What are they doing?"

"That looks like Vishkar technology," Hanzo spoke through gritted teeth. "It looks like even most of Talon didn't comply with their vision of a perfect world. And they're going to take the fall, whether Vishkar achieves that through brainwashing or not."

Harley looked at him with a hard look on her face. "This is bigger than us, isn't it?"

"Than us, or than Overwatch?"

"Us," She clarified, walking back towards the room they needed to try to open. "This search party, and the one that came before it. Nine of us can't deal with something this massive. We should find the others and leave."

"Leave?" Hanzo seemed incredulous. "They're vulnerable in there. One dragon strike…"

"Don't be so cocky," Her face relaxed a little and she gave him a tiny smile. "You've spent more time with Winston than me. He'd tell us not to start things, wouldn't he? Wasn't this supposed to be a rescue mission anyway? We can't start a fight we don't know we can finish."

 _When did she suddenly put herself in charge? Where did all this confidence suddenly come from?_ He was glad she was feeling better about her abilities, but getting them out of one tight spot didn't give her the authority and experience to start making judgment calls. Hanzo felt his hackles go up as she started fiddling with the electronic lock pad.

"I wonder…" Harley muttered to herself before pressing her entire hand against the pad.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying something," She said, leaning more of her bodyweight onto the buttons. Suddenly Hanzo heard a whirring and popping noise. He looked over and the keypad was crackling and the screen had gone dead.

"What did…" He couldn't even finish his sentence because at that moment Harley pushed on the door handle and the entire door easily swung open.

"Magnets really screw with electronics," She explained. "Usually I wouldn't try something like that for fear of breaking all the electronics in the immediate area, but we're kind of running out of time here, so I thought I'd try something new. It worked this time, I can't promise I can do it again."

Hanzo heard her explanation but it went in one ear and out the other as he looked past Harley into the room. They had indeed found the cell where at least a few of their fellow Overwatch agents were being held, but the sight of them was… unsettling. He could see Harley in his peripheral vision looking at him with confusion, but she gasped the instant she turned her attention to the room. It only took Hanzo a few seconds to recover from his shock before he raced into the room to help them.

Jack, Lucio, Pharah were all being held up against the wall with some kind of electronic wrist shackles that zapped Hanzo when he tried to touch them. Each of them was also wearing one of the virtual reality headsets. While Hanzo scoured the walls, looking for a switch for the shackles and trying to push down the impending sense of panic regarding the fact that Genji and Mercy weren't here, Harley carefully removed the headsets. She pulled Lucio's off first and he groaned, and then seemed to fall unconscious. Hanzo realized that the shackles may have been keyed to the panel that Harley destroyed getting into the room – _but then wouldn't they have come undone? Maybe there's another way to get these off_ …

"Harley," Hanzo came up beside her as she took off Pharah's headset, leaving only Jack's. "I can remove Commander Morrison's device if you think you can do what you did to the lock mechanism to those shackles."

"But I don't…"

"We will have to experiment," He tried to give her a reassuring look despite his mounting anxiety about Genji. "I am certain we don't have much time."

Harley nodded and went to work, though Hanzo could tell she was being much more gentle than she had been with the keypad. It was obvious she was very afraid to hurt anyone, but they would all be a lot more than hurt if they couldn't get out of here fast enough. He fumbled with the wires of Jack's headset before managing to remove it, just as Harley managed to get Pharah's shackles undone. Unfortunately she wasn't prepared for the tall, well-built woman to simply collapse in a heap, and they both fell to the floor.

"What's wrong with them?" Harley squirmed to get out from under Pharah's weight. "Why aren't they awake if they were being brainwashed?"

"I'm not sure," Hanzo pulled Pharah off of her. "We will have to find out when we go through these documents. For now we must try to wake them. We will not be able to carry three extra people out – certainly not quietly."

He swallowed hard, a lump forming in his throat. They still needed to find Mercy and Genji, and they were already on borrowed time. Hanzo gritted his teeth as he supported Lucio and then Jack as Harley undid their respective shackles, laying them carefully on the floor. Harley looked at him, panic clearly flashing in her eyes as well. He didn't even know what to tell her. This whole mission had been one issue after another. Is Overwatch out of its league?

Then, like an angel from above, Winston's voice rang out in their earpieces. "Hanzo! Harley! Come in! Come in!"

"Winston?" Harley was the first to react, tapping her ear. "Okay, okay… Yeah, we found them, but they're… Alright sorry. Got it. We'll meet you there."

"What did he say?"

"He found Mercy and Genji," Harley reached down and started tapping Pharah on the cheek. "We have to rendezvous at the room we got locked in and get back to the jet. He said he did… something… to delay them, but I feel like Talon isn't going to give us much of a head start. Come on, help me!"

Relief washed over Hanzo when he heard Genji's name. But he couldn't waste time feeling too happy yet, since they were only halfway through, and getting out was surely going to be much harder than getting in. As he knelt to try and wake Jack, his eyes darted around the holding cell.

"Where is Symmetra?"

Harley's head snapped up. "She… You don't think she…"

"She did work for Vishkar," Hanzo shook Jack by the shoulders. His head lolled to one side. "But she would never betray Overwatch. She sacrificed much to become a part of our team."

"Then why would they take her somewhere else?"

"I don't know."

"Pharah!" Defeated, Harley returned to the task at hand. "Pharah, wake up!"

"We don't have time for this," Hanzo snarled, slamming his fist into the floor.

"Are you…" Harley looked at him sideways. "Ready for another experiment?"

Hanzo stood up and nodded as his reply. So far almost everything she'd tried had worked so well he was beginning to have doubts about how little control she claimed to have over her powers. Then again, it was possible that she simply thrived under pressure, and her brain had gone straight to survival mode. _Perhaps this has enabled her to harness a control over her powers she never thought she had._ He was certainly impressed by her abilities.

Harley made the same motion she used when reversing the polarity around enemies, lifting the bodies of their three teammates into the air. However, she kept her hands up, and they remained floating, instead of crashing back to the ground. Her jaw was clenched and her brow furrowed.

"I don't know how long I can do this," She muttered through her teeth. "Let's go."

They moved through the hallways as quickly as Harley's powers allowed them too. She was fairly adept at keeping the three agents completely suspended, though she occasionally had to set them down and breathe for a few moments before continuing. The task seemed to be exhausting her but fortunately they didn't have too far to go. Hanzo walked just ahead of her, scouting the dark hallways and shooting sonic arrows. Lucky for them, it seemed most of the Talon agents were still in the mind control room, and they faced no one on their way back to the meeting spot.

"Guys!" Winston almost yelled when they finally reached the room. "Let's move!"

"Wait!" Hanzo pointed at Harley who was wavering on her feet, obviously on the verge of collapsing where she stood. "We cannot expect Harley to exert herself anymore. She has already done more than enough."

"Not a problem," Winston, who had both Genji and Mercy slung over one shoulder, easily scooped up the three agents in his free arm. "Now let's go!"

Hanzo looked over at Harley. She tried to take a step and keeled forwards. He darted to her, catching her long before she was in danger of hitting the floor, and hoisted her up into his arms. She curled her arms around his neck for support, and even though there was much about this situation that gave Hanzo butterflies in his stomach, this was far away from the place where he could allow himself to think about it. He took off at a run after Winston, only slightly slowed by Harley's weight. She was slender and light, and his armored boots gave him the extra edge to push forwards easily.

"We are missing Symmetra!" Hanzo called out as they hit the outer door and started running for the plane. "And what of Tracer?"

"No time," Winston huffed, clearly agitated. "Will talk on the plane."

They ran the rest of the way in silence, only hearing the blaring alarm sounding from the Talon facility the moment they stepped foot on the jet. Hanzo found this to be extremely suspect. Even if most of the agents were being brainwashed, surely there were senior Talon members who weren't taking part at that moment, and Vishkar employees who must be supervising the process. Besides, they rescued five extremely valuable prisoners without so much as a scuffle. This was concerning. Very concerning. _Did they… want us to get away?_

"Prepare for takeoff," Winston had carefully placed all their unconscious teammates on the floor before rushing up to the cockpit. He obviously wanted to get back to Hanamura without wasting another second. In mere moments their plane was already in the air. Hanzo was still holding Harley as he was knocked back into a seat upon takeoff. She appeared to have fallen asleep and he pulled her a little closer, simply grateful they had gotten out of there alive.

 _We might have died if it weren't for her_ , he thought back to every problem they'd faced along the way. She resolved everything. _Her powers are unimaginable and she is so capable of finding creative ways to use them. She undersells herself… I wonder why_. He looked down at her face, eyes closed, lips parted, and he could feel the pain return to his chest. When they landed back in Japan, it would be McCree holding her like this, not him.

He placed her in the seat next to him and got up to check on Genji. Honestly, Hanzo felt embarrassed that he'd been so focused on Harley in the escape he'd barely glanced at his brother. He was more than embarrassed. He felt ashamed of himself. He knew this wasn't the person he was supposed to be. _I'm not supposed to feel for others in this way. I gave up that life… or so I thought… but now…_ As he crouched next to his brother's mechanical body, trying to figure out if he – or any of them – were in serious danger, he had to restrain himself from glancing back at Harley. His brain was telling him to get back in the mindset of the mission, that they were at war and he couldn't afford to be developing any kind of feeling. His brain wanted him to continue being the warrior he'd swore he'd always be. But his heart… His heart was telling him that this time on the plane was precious, that he should spend it with Harley because went they touched down at Hanamura everything would go back to the way it was. She wouldn't look up at him with her big blue eyes or hug him and cry into his chest. Hanzo could have sworn he felt the tingling feeling of tears coming on when Winston called back to him.

"Could you come up here for a minute?"

"Yes," He was thankful for the distraction. "Are you alright?"

"Mostly," Now that the panic had left Winston's voice, he sounded somber and distraught. "I mean, I didn't get injured, and I was able to pull Mercy and Genji out of a serious nightmare. For both them and Overwatch."

"I sense there is something wrong."

The gorilla sighed. "Lena is… I think she's… gone."

"What?!"

"They removed her chronal accelerator," Winston coughed to cover what may have been a sniffle. "I think what happened is when the first team got there, and found out that they were trying to replicate the technology, Talon didn't want to risk reinforcements coming for Lena. So I found the room where she must have been hooked up… and I found pieces of the accelerator. But she can't really live without it. She's lost to time now, not really alive… not really dead."

"I… am sorry," Hanzo shifted his weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other and finally settled on sitting in the co-pilot seat.

"There's a chance we could find her again, but… It just seems so unlikely," Winston was gripping the controls so tightly Hanzo was sure he'd snap them in half. "At least we got Genji and Mercy out. At least they won't be able to replicate that technology… well, beyond what they already found out."

"I am not certain I want to know what was being done to him," Hanzo glanced over his shoulder at his brother lying on the floor. "Thank you for bringing him to safety."

"You said Symmetra is missing too?"

"Yes, she was not with the others."

"That's strange…" Winston sighed. "I don't know how we managed to screw this up so badly that we lost two agents in one mission."

"We were going up against the unknown."

"Still…"

"Do not blame yourself," Hanzo said firmly. "We were outmatched. We will prepare more accurately now that we have the files from their system, and next time they won't stand a chance. We will find their weakness. And bring down Vishkar as well."

"Thanks," Winston kept his eyes focused straight ahead. "Do you mind if we just take some quiet time now?"

"Fine with me."

Hanzo stood up and walked back to the seat where he'd left Harley. He sat down next to her, leaned back against the chair, and closed his eyes. Even without seeing, he reached over and took her hand in his, allowing himself one last moment of intimacy before they returned to the way things had been before. And even though she was asleep, she squeezed his hand.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

The shuttle landed with a thump that jostled Hanzo awake. Beside him, Harley stirred and opened her eyes; their fingers were still entwined from where they'd fallen asleep on the ride back. He looked down at her sideways. She was looking down at their hands. The only sound around them came from the gentle whir as the engines shut down.

"I'm going to ask Mei to bring a hover cart from the lab so we can move everyone safely," Winston spoke loudly from the cockpit, his voice startling Hanzo into pulling his hand away from Harley quite quickly. "Just stay here for a minute so you can keep an eye on them, okay?"

"Understood," Hanzo got to his feet, trying not to acknowledge Harley's eyes boring into his back.

Winston hurried out of the shuttle as soon as the door released, leaving Hanzo and Harley to watch over the several unconscious bodies of their teammates. Hanzo busied himself checking their pulses and breathing, painfully aware that Harley was still looking at him. He knew he had made a mistake in holding her hand, but maybe she could explain it away in her mind that they were both worn out and not entirely themselves after that mission. That's what he was hoping for, at least.

"Is everyone okay?" Harley asked, her voice still a little bit sleepy.

"They are alive," He answered flatly. "I believe they will need to undergo more examination before I would guarantee they are alright."

"Alive is good."

Hanzo didn't reply. He bit down on his tongue hard as he got to his feet and turned back around to face her. She was still seated, staring up at him with wide blue eyes, a puzzled look on her face, like she was trying to read him. He thought back to all the times he'd had to hide his feelings – or that he even had feelings – from his father, his brother, his clan, and felt the smallest bit of relief that it was very likely she'd never be able to figure him out.

Suddenly, abruptly, she looked down at her feet. "I wanted to say thank you."

"Thank me?" Hanzo blurted out, perplexed. "Why? I did nothing."

"That's not true," Her eyes were still lowered. "I kind of lost it back there, where I was telling you about my sister. And you didn't judge me, or become afraid of me, or tell me all the ways I was stupid and reckless. You… you hugged me. I didn't… I didn't think…"

"Didn't think what?"

She met his gaze sharply. "I didn't think I'd ever meet anyone who would understand."

Harley slowly rose to her feet and closed the distance between them, so close they were almost standing toe to toe. Hanzo was frozen on the spot, keeping his eyes trained on her face, entire body rigid with confusion and curiosity. She touched his bare upper arm gently with her fingertips, running them down in swirls that matched his dragon tattoo. Goosebumps rose up all over his body and he took a step back from her.

"I'm sorry," She said in a tone that Hanzo didn't recognize. "I've just felt like we really connected during this mission, you know? After everything you and I had gone through I honestly wondered if we could ever get along properly, but now…"

"Now…?" He ventured, aching to hear her thoughts and feelings but simultaneously terrified of the possible outcomes of them.

"Now…" She took another step to close the gap between them yet again, this time placing both her hands on his shoulders, preventing him from moving away from her. "I feel like there's something special here; a bond that only someone who's gone through what we have could appreciate. And I just felt so safe with you… even though we were trapped in an enemy base, when I broke down and you held me, it just… It all kind of melted away for a minute. And it's hard for me to feel like that."

Hanzo exhaled, realizing he'd been holding his breath without meaning to. She was so close that he could smell her hair and see his reflection in her glassy eyes. It was taking all of his self-control not to wrap his arms around her again. It would not be appropriate, he told himself, but Harley was giving him such a look – with the hint of a grin – it practically screamed for physical intimacy. They were already practically halfway to an embrace. Hanzo reached towards her, losing control of himself.

"Alright, let's get everyone to the lab for a checkup," Winston's voice boomed from the doorway, overtaking the beeping sound of the hover cart backing up.

Hanzo instantly dropped his arms and Harley did the same, both of them swiveling to face Winston almost exactly in sync. Hanzo hoped his face – which he could feel getting hot – wasn't going to betray what had almost happened. He wondered what kind of expression was on Harley's face but had no plans to risk looking at her.

"I'll take Jack and Pharah," Winston continued, oblivious, as he scooped up their bodies and then called over his shoulder. "McCree, help Hanzo with Genji."

Hanzo felt his jaw lock at the sound of spurs clanking up the small ramp that lead into the shuttle. There had been a moment, however brief, just a few seconds earlier, where he'd simply forgotten McCree existed at all. He cursed himself, having spent all that time in the air trying to mentally prepare himself for this eventuality, only to have it crash down on him like a ton of bricks. When the cowboy appeared in the doorway and winked at Harley, Hanzo had to restrain himself from punching the wall.

"Well howdy there darling."

"Jesse, hi," Harley's words were barely more than a breath; she sounded almost surprised, and another quality that Hanzo couldn't quite place. It certainly didn't match the enthusiastic tone she'd previously had when speaking to him… though she had been through a lot.

"I missed you something fierce," McCree zeroed in on her, taking a few long strides until he was touching distance, then clasped her face in his hand. "Glad you see you made it back in one piece."

Hanzo watched as Harley giggled and blushed, leaning into McCree's touch. _Well there you have it. She's taken and you already knew that_ , he scolded himself. _Why must you be such a fool? Why can you never learn?_ But no matter how much he tried to punish himself for having the feelings, it failed to make them go away. Instead, he felt like he'd had the wind knocked out of him and like his heart had completely sunk into the very pit of his stomach.

"Hello, we're waiting!" Winston's voice came from outside. Hanzo was grateful that this seemed to shake McCree and Harley out of their longing stare and come back to reality.

"Righto, I'll give you a hand here," The cowboy leaned down and grabbed Genji's legs, leaving Hanzo to hoist his brother by the armpits. No matter how lithe Genji appeared to be, his Omnic body made him much heavier than Hanzo ever expected. It was certainly a job for two regular people to carry him out to the cart. Behind them, Harley struggled slightly to get Mercy out on her own. McCree went back for Lucio on his own as well, and quickly the three of them watched Winston and Mei drive off towards the labs, hopefully to figure out what was wrong with their teammates.

Hanzo stood idle for a minute, unsure of what to do. He did everything he could to control his scowl as McCree advanced on Harley again, this time taking her around the waist and murmuring into her ear. She giggled again and playfully pushed him away, which only caused him to pull her toward him even more.

Unable to watch their interaction, Hanzo decided that the only thing he could do was to go find somewhere quiet to meditate and hopefully ease his mind. He quickly turned his back and started crossing the courtyard, thinking that perhaps one of the gardens would suit his purpose well. After all, he'd been in planes and concrete bases for the better part of a day and a half.

"Wait, Hanzo!" Harley's voice came from behind him. "Where are you going?"

"To meditate," He stopped but didn't turn around. "Good evening."

"Oh, okay, I mean, I guess I just thought…"

"Hey now pretty little thing," McCree's drawl followed, a sound like nails on a chalkboard. "He had you all to himself just about for the last while. I feel like I'd like the same."

Hanzo swallowed hard, using every last ounce of strength left in him not to spin on his heel and scream or simply attack McCree just for existing. _These feelings are irrational, you have to get it under control. Your feelings are becoming a weakness and a liability. Push them out and away and you will find peace, you know that._

Without waiting for any other reply, Hanzo continued on towards the gardens, thinking over and over how he needed to rid himself of these feelings as a few tears ran down his cheeks.


	16. Chapter 16

_**(Author's note: first of all, I would like to apologize once again for the delay in updates. I got a job that is consuming 11 hours of my day, and so my free time has become increasingly sparse. You can also blame the team I play competitive Overwatch with because sometimes I'll sit down to write but they'll want to play :P Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter and that it was worth the wait!)**_

 **Chapter 16**

By the time Hanzo reached his bedroom all he wanted to do was get into bed and disappear from the world forever, but as he removed his tunic he realized that he hadn't showered in far too long and it was getting unpleasant. He heaved a sigh as this meant continuing to exist in the real world, not to mention risking bumping into Harley, McCree, or literally anyone else. He didn't care; he just wanted to be alone. Hopefully the bathing area would be unoccupied.

It seemed his prayers were answered as only silence met his ears as he stepped into the bathing room and made a beeline for one of the showers, once again opting against using the large and ancient bath in the middle of the room. Hanzo preferred efficiency these days.

Water cascaded over his sore shoulders and warmly pooled around his aching feet. He stood under the flow for a long while, simply letting the water soak through him in an attempt to ease the pain – both physical and emotional – though it was to little avail. Finally he grabbed for some soap and lathered his body well, taking extra care to delicately rub his tattoo. Even though he'd had it for so many years, he still tenderly cared for it as if it were the first day he got it. He made small, slow circles in soap over the skin, watching the dragon disappear under suds and then washing them away just as quickly. He focused intensely on the task of washing himself, trying not to let his mind wander.

Just as he lathered his face, Hanzo heard voices near the doorway and cursed in Japanese under his breath. Even though he was in an enclosed stall, the mere presence of others was disruptive to him. Especially once he recognized the voices.

"Jesse, stop!" Harley's voice rang out in the tone of someone who clearly did not want whatever was happening to stop. Hanzo winced.

"You can't take a bath with your clothes on, darling," McCree's voice was loud; he presumably expected no one else to be in the bath house. "There's no need to be shy around me."

More giggles followed and for the first time since the incident with Genji, Hanzo truly felt the desire to be dead. It wasn't so much that he wanted to go through death; he just simply wanted to be gone from this mortal plane and all the pain it brought. He rinsed the soap off his face, losing the sound of Harley's melodious laughter underneath the running water. When he withdrew his face, the giggles had quieted, and though he couldn't currently hear anything else over the sound of the shower, he was certain they hadn't suddenly decided to leave.

This brought about a new problem. Hanzo's breath caught in his chest as he realized that he was effectively trapped in the shower stall, unless he wanted to confront his teammates. With the way the shower stalls were positioned on the other side of the bathhouse from the entryway, he would have no choice but to walk directly past the communal bath to leave. In a moment of morbidity, he wondered if McCree and Harley might even be too wrapped up in each other to notice if he walked by.

Some splashing noises caught his attention again. _They must be in the water now_ , he thought, clenching his teeth so hard it made his head hurt. Done with washing and trying to think of his best option to get out of the stall, Hanzo turned off the water and waited. There was splashing, and a low murmur from McCree, though they were speaking quietly now and Hanzo wasn't about to strain to hear their words. With a sigh, he reached for the towel hanging off the side of the shower and rubbed his head vigorously. He dried himself fairly quickly, making every effort possible to ignore the fact that Harley had started giggling again. Wrapping the towel around his waist he opened the door of the stall and glanced out to look for an escape route. Fortunately his view of the bath was blocked by a half-wall that jutted out to separate the bath from the showers. Harley's giggles intensified. From what he could tell, it sounded like she was playfully evading McCree.

"Hey, get back here!" The cowboy's voice suddenly rang out.

The sound of feet padding across the wooden floors of the bathhouse met Hanzo's ears. _She got out of the bath to make him chase her_. The very idea of it made Hanzo practically recoil on the spot. He reached for the clean tunic he'd brought along as he searched desperately for a window he could climb through, but the bathhouse had been built for privacy, and all the windows were far too small and mostly covered anyway. Hanzo cursed his father's designs as he pulled his loose-fitting pants on, leaving his tunic open for the time being. His wet hair hung loose around his shoulders and he pushed away a few stray pieces sticking to his forehead.

"I'm not getting out to come after you," McCree drawled from the other side of the wall.

"You'll have to!" Harley's voice seemed closer than it was before and Hanzo immediately tensed up. He struggled to remember to breathe as the sound of her footsteps grew closer still. Another splashing noise; water hitting the floor this time.

"Get back here!"

"You can't splash me over here!" She called, her voice echoing off the walls.

Hanzo took a step forward, deciding he had no better option to alert them to his presence and leave as quickly as possible, but before he could do so, Harley rounded the corner. She was half walking backwards, looking over her shoulder rather than where she was going, allowing Hanzo to catch full sight of her completely naked body before she turned her head, stopping just short of colliding with him.

He wanted to gasp but the sound caught in his throat. He did his best not to stare and averted his gaze the second her head turned but he'd certainly seen enough. The entirety of her milky-white flesh caught his eye in particular, every inch of her practically flawless with the hint of a few scars. He indulged in a moment of wondering what it would feel like to run his hand down her back, wrap his arms around her sides, press himself against her. Blood rushed to his face, surging with heat and redness.

"Oh my god!" She shrieked, jerking like she was going to move and then freezing on the spot, eyes wide. "I… I… I didn't… I…"

"Here," Hanzo handed her the nearest towel and then quickly pushed past her, walking as quickly as possible without breaking into a run. He ignored McCree's startled yelp as he crossed the bathing area and made his way toward the door, focusing on nothing but getting back to his bedroom until he was actually there. The few minutes it took to walk between the bathhouse and the large temple where his room was felt like utter agony.

Once in his bedroom, however, it felt as if a switch had been flipped inside him. Everything in his brain and heart was suddenly being overridden by a strong sensation best described as a ravenous hunger. His thoughts centered solely on Harley, and little bit of her he'd managed to catch sight of mere minutes ago. The images were fresh in his mind and he played them back slowly in his head as he flopped down onto the bed on his back.

He thought of the curve of her back; the way her shoulders were so rounded and smooth he just wanted to sink his teeth into them. He thought of the spot where her back became her bottom, two small but breathtaking curves that melded into her cream-colored thighs. He thought of how at first she'd been on an angle, and he could only make out the side of her breast, but when she turned around he could see them both completely, perfect mounds that looked like he could fit just right in his hands. There was just so much about her that beckoned to him, called out to him, spoke to him on some level, some part of himself he wanted to deny existed. But it did exist, and it had bubbled its way to the surface, now taking over all other parts of him so that Harley was the only thing on his mind. Moreover, his mind was beginning to transmit those feelings to other parts of him as well.

Hanzo was suddenly aware of how hard he had become. His loose pants were tented and his whole body felt tingly and warm. His eyes flickered to the door: it was closed and latched. Looking back down at his erection, he was only briefly able to contemplate against doing what he wanted to before the images of Harley overtook him once more and he could no longer resist.

It had been quite some time since he'd allowed himself this sort of expression, but it undeniably felt amazing when he slipped his hand beneath his beltline and took a hold of himself. He closed his eyes, picturing a world where McCree didn't exist and he'd encountered that same situation with Harley. Hanzo stroked himself in long, slow motions, imagining pressing her against the wall and kissing her neck, grabbing a fistful of her orange hair, feeling her naked breasts pressed tightly against his own bare chest. In a natural way his strokes picked up a little speed and he began breathing through his mouth and he thought of her body over and over again. He thought about squeezing her ass as they embraced, digging his fingers into her white skin until there were pink marks to signify that he'd been touching her. Even though the one part of her he hadn't really caught sight of was between her legs, he was still able to imagine rubbing his fingers there, perhaps sliding a few inside of her, until she loudly moaned his name.

It had been so long since Hanzo had treated himself this way he'd barely noticed how aggressive he was being, rubbing his hand up and down quickly and erratically to the thought of driving his fingers into Harley at the same pace. Taking a long, deep breath he tried to slow himself a bit, not quite wanting to be finished with the fantasy just yet.

To prevent getting away from himself, Hanzo shuffled out of his pants and gave himself a moment to breath, noticing the wetness on his fingers when he gingerly rubbed around the head of his penis. He wondered how it would feel if Harley touched him this way, then became consumed with a new fantasy of watching her drop to her knees in front him. Hanzo grabbed his shaft again and rubbed with even, firm strokes while picturing her mop of orange hair bobbing up and down as she took his length in her mouth all the way to the hilt. He pictured her soft, muffled sounds of pleasure as she did so. It brought him close to the edge; so close that he realized he'd better have a plan for what happened when he did allow himself the release. He reached over the edge of his bed and settled on one of the long pieces of fabric he used to tie back his hair. He had plenty of those anyway.

The momentary distraction didn't prove to be a problem as Harley was instantly on his mind again and he could think of nothing he wanted more than to hear her calling his name out in ecstatic desperation. _Hanzo, Hanzo, Hanzo_. He could hear it so clearly that before he knew it air was catching in his throat and his hips were beginning to buck. He reached for the strip of fabric at the last possible second, draping it over his pelvic area as wave after wave of pleasure crested over him. The release and the feeling that followed was something he suspected he had been missing without realizing it for quite a few years.

Part of Hanzo thought he should feel ashamed as he cleaned himself off with the fabric and tossed it on the floor. It was very unlike him to have such messy behavior, but he was tired and frankly couldn't be bothered because the larger part of him was glad he'd indulged in that feeling. He wanted to indulge in more of it, with Harley.

Unfortunately the real world wasn't far behind his fantasies and it only took a few minutes of lying in the bed, naked from the waist down, before he realized that in this world, McCree still existed. Hanzo so desperately wanted to have hope for himself in that moment of realization. His pain, however briefly, was replaced by a bold sentiment: _why not me_? The voice in his head that had spent most of his adult life being silenced by words of duty and honor now piped up inside him to say: _why not me_?

 _Maybe there is hope for me yet._


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Hanzo shot bolt upright in the darkness, suddenly wide awake. He reached over to his bedside table to check the time on his communication device. Three o'clock in the morning. He attempted to lie down again, but his brain was already active, replaying the events of the previous evening and the fallout thereafter. Earlier, he had felt sadness, and then something that was akin to a glimmer of hope. He had felt something stir deep inside of him that he hadn't allowed to surface in years. But now those feelings felt far away and bitter in his mouth. Now he felt angered by so many different things about how that situation had unfolded, and the things he could have – and should have – done differently. The familiar burning sensation in his chest returned; the one he'd felt when Harley had first shown up at Hanamura and he'd thought her unprofessional and weak. Everything was unclear in his mind and although he didn't want to be angry with her, there was a part of him that was… even in spite of what had happened earlier when he couldn't stop thinking about her body. He needed to walk, run, fight someone, get outside. His body ached for movement and he decided that there was no point in staying in bed when he so clearly did not want to.

After dressing himself in pants and – to his disgruntlement – an old t-shirt that he had found in a box under his bed upon realizing he needed to wash his tunic, he wandered outside and roamed the gardens and pathways of his home. He walked without direction or aim, taking deep breaths of cool night air, until he came to Winston's shuttle, where the lab had been converted into a medical bay for their teammates. He walked up to the door and pressed on the entry button, curious if the door was unlocked. Surprisingly it hissed and opened easily, welcoming him with a burst of warm air from inside.

There was a light on toward the back of the shuttle where the med bay was set up. He wondered who else could possibly be awake at this time. As he ventured in, feet rapping gently against the metal floor, he saw a shadow move across the doorway. Mei's round face appeared immediately after the shadow, eyebrows raised.

"Hanzo? What are you doing up?"

"I could ask you the same thing," He said dryly. "But the truth is I simply awoke and could not get back to sleep."

"Sorry to hear that," She fully emerged from where she'd been standing half-concealed in the doorway. She was wearing a white lab coat over sweat pants and a tank top. Hanzo felt embarrassed and frustrated with himself when his eyes lingered a moment too long on her ample bust peeking from the low neckline of her shirt. Fortunately she had turned her head to look back into the medical area and he was fairly certain she didn't notice his momentary lapse.

 _What is wrong with me? Have I awakened something inside myself I was better off allowing to lie dormant?_ He asked himself as he fought against his own gaze from returning to Mei's curvy figure. He had pushed away the sexual aspect of his being for so long in the name of honor and discipline, and now it was as if floodgates had opened within him. _Why not me_ … The words echoed in his head.

"I think your brother is waking up," Mei turned her head back as she spoke, sending a few strands of loose chestnut hair flying around her rosy cheeks. "I think his cybernetic enhancements may have protected him from whatever Vishkar was doing. I think maybe their programming didn't mix very well with his hardware. The others… they're stable, but not making very much progress. But Genji seems to be recovering."

Hanzo felt relief wash over him like a soothing wave at her words. He took a careful step forward, craning his neck to peer inside the lit room. There were cots set up, squeezed in tighter than was probably ideal but it was the best they had at this point. Genji's bed was at the far end of the tiny room, and he was definitely stirring.

"May I speak to him?"

"Of course!" Mei gestured while stepping out of his way. "Though I do think you should try to get some more sleep."

"You should likely do the same," He said softly as he passed her.

"Maybe later. Call me if you need anything."

Hanzo heard the door click shut behind him, leaving the room silent save for the eerie beeping of a few machines and the rustling of Genji's bed sheets. Hanzo walked towards his brother's bed the same way one might approach an unfamiliar animal: slowly, and with great reserve. He wasn't sure why he was so apprehensive of getting close, but something was making him feel ill at ease. Perhaps it was guilt. Perhaps it was shame. He finally reached the small cot just as Genji began speaking.

"Where am I?"

"Home," Hanzo answered without thinking, and then quickly corrected himself. "Hanamura."

"Hanzo?" Genji rolled his head over.

"Yes," Hanzo figured the others weren't about to wake up any time soon, but he still felt the need to keep his voice low. "How do you feel?"

"Like Frogger after one too many losses."

Hanzo couldn't help but smirk. Even with all his wisdom and learning from Zenyatta, even with all his training and his growing up, Genji was still the same silly boy who loved vintage video games underneath that half-Omnic suit. It made Hanzo wonder where the person he used to be had gone… or if that person ever existed at all. At least Genji, for all his faults in his youth, had a personality, and character. Hanzo had been a string puppet for his father and the Shimada clan; obeying rules and putting everything else before himself. His smile faded.

"Brother?"

Hanzo realized his concentration had drifted. "I am glad to see you awake."

"Did everyone else make it out as well?"

"Mostly," Hanzo pointed in the direction of the other beds where Mercy, Lucio, Jack and Pharah were still unconscious. "We could not find Symmetra. And Winston believes Lena to be lost."

"Lost?"

"They removed her chronal accelerator."

"So we failed…" Through the mechanical clink of Genji's voice, Hanzo could still easily detect his sadness. He knew Genji had gotten along well with Lena – most people got along well with Lena, but Genji liked her a lot – and this was probably not the news he needed at the moment.

"We were all unprepared," Hanzo continued, trying to draw his focus. "When Winston, Harley and I went to rescue you…"

"Rescue me?" Genji interrupted.

"Yes."

"How did you know I was in trouble?"

"We received a recording from a body camera. Pharah's, I believe."

"And?"

"You went missing after the first clip. We knew something must have gone wrong."

"And?"

"Genji," Hanzo said sharply, then eased his tone. "I know you have many questions, but we do not know exactly what Vishkar has done to you. Winston must go through the documents we extracted to see exactly what they were… are… planning to do with you."

"Vishkar?" Genji sounded surprised.

"Yes, they are the ones who kidnapped you."

"No. It was a Talon base. Talon is behind this war."

"Talon is behind the war, yes…" Hanzo chewed the inside of his cheek, unsure how much he should be explaining to Genji in his weakened state. "But Vishkar is controlling them. They are running the operations; Talon is simply executing the orders. This is much worse than we had originally anticipated, and much more complex. But we can speak of that another time. You should rest."

"Rest?" Genji tried sitting upright but it looked like his arms weren't responding very well when he tried to push himself upright. "We must figure this out, and now. Where are the documents?"

"We will figure it out," Hanzo pushed gently on his brother's shoulder. " _You_ will lie down."

"I am fine."

"You are not fine."

"I am fine!"

"No."

Genji tried to struggle but Hanzo's grip was firm. His brother heaved a large, exaggerated sigh behind his mask and lay back down. It took everything Hanzo had in him not to smile. He thought of the conversation they'd had just before the first party left on their mission, when he'd been making tea. He thought of Genji's meditation routines, and how serene he'd been acting, and how his words of advice had sounded just like something that would come out of Zenyatta's mouth. Now he was acting like an offended teenager again. Hanzo had to admit he didn't mind it. They spent so much time fighting as teenagers, Hanzo had so much responsibility and Genji spent so much time running from it, they'd never really had the chance to simply be brothers.

As Genji sulked in the bed, Hanzo took a seat on the edge of it, near his brother's feet. They spent a long few moments in silence until Genji visibly relaxed.

Hanzo kept his eyes fixed on the wall when he spoke. "Have you ever been in love?"

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Why are you asking?"

"Do you plan to answer me or not?"

Genji's visor flashed brightly for a moment. "I believe I was, once."

"What did you do about it?"

"Asking me this now, I would say I am ashamed that I did nothing. At the time, it didn't seem like anything worth pursuing."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because I was too preoccupied with myself," Genji turned his head to look Hanzo in the face, and even though his eyes were hidden by his helmet, Hanzo got the impression they were making very purposeful eye contact. "I did not care to understand my feelings; I only wanted to be rid of them. I thought it was simpler to be the person I was at the time – the person I thought I wanted to be – which was a person who had no time for love. Being in love meant my thoughts were in one place when I wanted, or perhaps needed, them to be elsewhere. At the time, if I wanted to focus on beating a video game, or training my sword, or even sleeping with other girls, I couldn't be bothered to have my heart filled with complicated emotions when my life was so much simpler without them."

Hanzo couldn't find the words to reply. Even though the circumstances were different, Genji had highlighted a parallel between their situations Hanzo couldn't ignore. His brother addressed the very things preventing him from taking any action in regards to his feelings… although there was one very large difference.

"You are a different man now," Hanzo's voice came out very quiet. "If you were to fall in love again, would you act the same way?"

"I'd like to think the answer is no," Genji turned his head to stare at the ceiling. "I know it is difficult to go against the way we were raised. Father would have told you that love is a liability, right? Especially you. Heir to the empire. Love would make you weak, cause mistakes, all of that. No time for nonsense. Did he ever try to arrange your marriage?"

Hanzo suddenly felt cold. "Let's speak of that another time."

"Alright."

"It's just…" Hanzo fidgeted with the blanket, something he normally would never do. "I feel as though I've gone out of control."

"Because you're in love?" Genji's voice had a hint of the same sing-song quality it did when he teased Hanzo when they were children; however, when Hanzo gave him a sharp look, he raised his hands defensively. "Sorry."

"I do not know what I feel," Hanzo closed his eyes in exasperation. "It is… new."

"Why do you feel out of control?"

"Because I thought love was supposed to be a pleasing experience."

"And it's not?"

"Not for me," Hanzo looked at his brother sideways. "So far it has been nothing but an extremely frustrating combination of warmth, anger, pain, loneliness and…"

"And…?"

Hanzo snorted. "Lust."

"I see…" Genji surprisingly had no trace of a mocking tone. "You are unhappy."

"Yes."

"Have you… taken any action towards this person?"

"No," Hanzo looked at his lap. "I cannot."

"Why not?"

 _Why not indeed_. The images of McCree and Harley kissing flashed through Hanzo's mind, followed by the image of Harley's naked body, followed by his imagination piecing together choppy thoughts of them together in the bath. He felt a surge of the same anger he'd felt when he'd woken up and gripped the edge of the bed tightly. _This is my home, my haven, my place of comfort despite my personal history_ , he thought to himself through gritted teeth. _I should not have to feel this way here, and they should not be treating my home this way_. For a moment he regretted not stopping to kick both of them out of the bath house when they'd had their encounter.

 _But is that really what I'm angry about_? Hanzo was overcome with guilt and sadness suddenly, a feeling he did not welcome. It was easier to be angry. Angry had a place to go, a finger to point. Sadness stayed within him, burning him deeply from the inside out. But there was no denying that in reality, there wasn't inherently anything wrong with the situation. McCree had simply acted where he had not. _I'm so emotionally stunted I did not realize my true feelings until it was much, much too late, and now I am this wreck of a man_. He wanted to bang his head into the wall to erase the shame he felt at the fact that as a man of nearly forty, he was still learning how to be his own person and not just a shadow of his former life.

There was a cool sensation against the back of his hand and he looked down to see Genji lightly touching him. He didn't need to speak any words to know that his brother understood that there was a great storm raging within him.

"What do I do?" Hanzo asked weakly.

"I wish I knew," Genji replied, sympathy apparent in his voice. "I'm sorry Hanzo."


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

"I'm sorry to wake you all up so early," Winston said in a voice that sounded surprisingly calm and collected, considering how the last two days had gone. "It's just that we've gotten some news out of Russia and I believe time is going to be running against us yet again."

Hanzo was sitting in his usual seat at the meeting room table, leaning his elbow on the surface and resting his temple against his fist. He hadn't so much woken up early as he had never gone back to sleep. After he and Genji finished speaking and Mei ushered him out of the med bay, he had aimlessly wandered the rooftops of Hanamura until sunrise, unable to rid himself of the restless feeling that had been plaguing him since he'd returned from the mission. Through all his confusion, hurt and anger, he couldn't get the memory of holding Harley's hand out of his mind, or the way they'd hugged, or how close to him she'd gotten right as they landed.

His eyes flickered up across the table to where Harley and McCree were seated. They looked tired, but more than that, there was something off in their body language. There were no secret smiles, no giggles; they weren't even looking at each other. Both of them had half-hooded eyes aimed in Winston's direction but their bodies looked tense and uncomfortable. He wondered what had happened after he left them in the bathhouse.

Beside him – despite much protesting from Mei – Genji shifted in his seat. It was unclear whether he was in pain or simply just glad to be out of the bed, even if Mei said otherwise. Mei herself was sitting at the head of the table next to where Winston was standing, but DVa was missing. It suddenly occurred to Hanzo that he hadn't seen the young Korean girl since they'd returned from the mission, as he'd been so preoccupied with other things filling his mind.

Tired and without thinking, he asked aloud, "Where is Hana?"

"I was just getting to that actually," Winston responded patiently. "I sent her to Moscow to rendezvous with Zarya and Reinhardt. It seems that there's a Vishkar development going up surprisingly quickly in Saint Petersburg; too quickly for our comfort based on what happened in Dorado."

"They're expanding…" Harley murmured, suddenly looking more awake.

"Since by and large this crisis has only affected the Western world, we're hoping to unsettle the Vishkar development before they take root in Russia. Another base that far east could mean disaster if they're operating faster and stronger than before. Especially if they succeeded in getting what they needed from Genji."

"Which was what, exactly?" Genji spoke, his mechanical voice flat.

"We're still going through the documents," Winston adjusted his glasses. "There are hundreds of pages in the file. Although on the surface, it seems fairly simple. You're a medical marvel and there's no secret about that. What Mercy succeeded in doing to you was unprecedented and no one has been able to duplicate it since. However…"

There was a thick silence in the air as Winston faltered. Hanzo looked sideways at his brother, wishing the faceplate didn't exist so he could see what was happening in Genji's mind. Though he was every bit the trained killer Hanzo was, Genji had always revealed much of himself through his eyes. They were bright and expressive, never failing to give away when he was lying to their father or excited about something when they were children. It was something Hanzo didn't realize he missed so much until he stared into the cold green glow of the visor: for all the progress he'd made reconciling with Genji, there was so much of him that was gone, he wondered if he'd ever be able to completely think of him as the person he used to know again.

Winston cleared his throat. "However, it seems they were able to run a number of procedures and tests on you while you were being held captive. They may have gained some information, but we have to decrypt the files I took from the medical bay they were holding you in."

"What?" Hanzo perked up at this information; news to him.

"When I found Genji he was hooked up to a number of machines that seemed to be collecting data from his body, somehow. Since so much of him is Omnic, a good deal of what Mercy did to him can be digitally traced. But when I transferred the files – exactly the same way we did in the first room – they all came up gibberish on my computer. I suspect that someone is working for or at the very least with Talon to hide their data as much as possible."

Hanzo prickled at the words but decided not to press it any further since there was already too much going on for them to handle, especially shorthanded. Instead of listening to Winston carry on explaining to Genji what they'd uncovered so far, which was information he already knew, he redirected his attention to Harley and McCree. They hadn't even glanced at each other yet. He hadn't taken much note when they came into the shuttle but it was now more than a suspicion that their cool and distant behavior meant something bad had happened between them. _But what_? Hanzo swallowed the lump in his throat, trying not to consider the implications of Harley becoming available. He didn't need the distraction, but it was there all the same. Nagging at the back of his mind, and the front of his pants, as she leaned heavily on the table with both arms, significantly amplifying her cleavage. He averted his gaze as she turned her head.

"Anyway, Mei also has some news regarding our teammates," Winston rapped his fingers loudly against the table, obviously having caught himself in a long-winded speech. "I'll go over the plan for Russia once she's said her peace, since I'm sure you're all wondering, and I could use a snack."

Mei got to her feet. "I have some good news and bad news."

"Bad news first," McCree cut in abruptly. "Always bad news first."

"Alright. The bad news is that no one but Genji has managed to regain consciousness yet. They are alive and relatively unharmed, but I can't seem to wake them up. I wish Mercy could be the one taking care instead of me… she would know what to do."

"Don't be hard on yourself," Harley said softly. "Plus there's good news, right?"

"Yes. The good news is that their brain activity seems to have picked up. I can see their eyes twitching behind their eyelids and a few times I've seen them stir," She chewed on her lip for a moment before continuing. "I'll be honest, when they first came in, I thought they might have endured permanent brain damage. I could barely get a reading. But it seems as though they're coming back, so we'll hope for the best."

"Permanent brain damage?" Hanzo repeated. "From the mind control devices?"

"I believe so, yes. From everything Winston has told me – and what I read of the documents you brought back – it seems as though Vishkar isn't simply controlling the minds of the people they've taken. They're completely wiping and replacing their entire being with thoughts and memories of this perfect world. I believe you interrupted the process early enough for our teammates, but for the soldiers who have been brainwashed… there might not be anything of them left."

"I can't help but feel this would be simpler to figure out if Symmetra was here," Winston said through bites of banana. "The way she disappeared… it doesn't seem right."

"You remember anything about that Genji?" McCree turned in his seat, looking at Genji from under the brim of his hat. "Did you manage to see where they hauled Symm off to before you got taken?"

"Or, perhaps, if she went willingly?" Hanzo ventured.

"No way," McCree slapped the table with his mechanical hand. "I know we've had some bad blood with Symm in the past but she's on our side now. She's a good egg. There's no way she'd go back to Vishkar after all we've been through together. I wouldn't hear of it."

"It is important to consider all options," Hanzo flattened his mouth into a line, unimpressed as much with McCree's outburst as he'd been when Symmetra had hers about Tracer. "It does us no good to be blinded by our emotions, however strong."

The way McCree went silent rang out loud and clear to Hanzo that he had struck a nerve. He wanted to smile but managed to keep his stony expression, knowing that he had ventured into a rocky environment where he might, for once, actually come out on top. McCree stared at the table for a few seconds, then slightly inclined his head towards Harley. She looked like she was pretending not to notice him looking as she pulled a loose thread on her shirt. The cowboy only looked for another moment or so and then returned his attention to Genji.

"So? You remember anything?"

"Unfortunately not much," Genji folded his hands on his lap. "It is fuzzy, and some of the memories do not make sense. I suspect that goes along with what Mei mentioned about how the mind control replaces your thoughts – I am having a hard time deciphering in my own mind what really happened and what did not."

"I was afraid of that," Mei nodded sympathetically. "Well, we can only hope for the best for the others, and as for Symmetra… I suppose she will need to wait."

"Yes, we have bigger fish to fry at that new Vishkar development," Winston cut back in, having finished an entire jar of peanut butter in the time they were talking. "I put out the signal for a more widespread recall, because after what happened in Dorado, we can't risk going in with such a small task force. I mean, ideally we'd like to go in, solve the problem and get out without drawing any attention to ourselves, but I just don't think that's a reality. We're going to have to put Overwatch right back in the spotlight for the greater good."

Hanzo disliked the idea of being in any kind of spotlight. Growing up as the heir to an enormous criminal empire had given him more than his fair share of attention, and he had set that aside years ago for something more fulfilling. He was arrows in the shadows and a dragon on the wind, not someone who had any desire to be on a poster or worse, on some projection screen being accused of meddling in affairs that the global government could or should be handling themselves. He set his jaw, furrowing his eyebrows. He was too tired to think about how badly this could go for them. In all honesty, he wanted to go back to sleep; the place where he was rid of responsibility and emotion.

Winston went on in great detail about the mission in Russia for a while, but Hanzo only half-listened, his mind drifting to his past, his present and his future. He thought of the stoic sixteen-year-old he'd once been, sneering at anyone who lived outside the rich gated areas of Hanamura and taking little interest in anything other than training his blade and bow. He thought of his twentieth birthday, and how his father had introduced him to a blushing girl and loudly announced that it was time for him to start thinking of stepping into the shoes of the "family" by making one of his own. He quickly shook that memory aside in favor of fleeting thoughts of Harley instead: the way her orange hair kissed her forehead, how smooth and soft her skin looked, how he'd give anything to stare deeply into her eyes before kissing her…

"Hanzo?" Winston, ever the buzzkill, waved his large hand from the front of the table. "Earth to Hanzo… You still with us?"

"Yes, I'm sorry," He sat up straight in his seat. _Was I staring at Harley this whole time_? He suddenly panicked since she was looking right at him, a questioning expression on her face. It didn't seem to upset, so maybe he hadn't been, but the way she was looking at him gave him butterflies. They were quickly quashed, however, by the sound of McCree's voice.

"So when do we pack up and leave for Saint what's-it's-burg?"

"Not until we can be sure of the condition of the others," Winston grimaced. "I know we're short on time but it's not like we can just leave them. Besides, we're going to need all hands on deck, and we could use strong military leaders like Pharah and Jack."

"What if some of us went ahead?" McCree countered. "I hate sitting around. Besides, it would give us some opportunity to get some fresh faces over there that maybe Vishkar isn't going to recognize right away to collect some intel. After all, me and Mei didn't go to Dorado. They don't know us from a hole in the ground as far as we know, and if Talon is operating on this side of the planet that means Vishkar is probably flying solo out in Russia. So we might be able to get some element of surprise on them, with the help of the others already over there."

Winston scratched his chin. "You do have a point."

"It's settled then," McCree got to his feet. "Mei, you're with me."

"But…"

"No buts. Winston knows what's what around here."

Hanzo couldn't help but raise his eyebrows at the cowboy. _Why is he in such a rush to leave_? He peered over at Harley, whose eyes darted all over the room, hitting every direction except the one in which she would find McCree. _Something really did happen between them. Something bad. There's no way they'd just drift apart overnight_ … He took a long, slow breath to quell the thudding of his heart and the swelling feeling in his chest. _Don't get so excited. Remember your training. Remember that duty comes first_.

And yet he couldn't help the surge of something bubbling up inside him as McCree left the shuttle with Mei in tow, and Winston went to the med bay with Genji, leaving the two of them alone in the quiet. Harley was looking down, wringing her fingers. Hanzo wanted to say something to her but didn't even know where to begin. He wanted to ask her if everything was alright; he wanted to ask her what had happened between the two of them. His fatigue was erased with the thought of hearing her say that she and McCree were no longer… whatever they had been.

Following the elation came a sense of dread. _What would I tell her if that was the case? What would I say? Do I tell her I'm sorry? What if she asks me advice about how to fix things between them_? His head began to spin worrying about the different possible outcomes. _Worse, what if she's so embarrassed or upset about the incident in the bath house that she never wants to talk to me again_? He acknowledged that it would be somewhat a relief if she made that decision for him, but the agony of never being near enough to her to have a conversation again was agonizing.

Suddenly, her eyes came up to meet his and locked there. She stared at him for a long moment, unblinking, and he stared back across the table. She opened her mouth, a small sigh escaped as if she were preparing to say something important.

And then she got up and left the shuttle quickly, disappearing through the doors into the gardens.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

Hanzo found himself chasing after Harley before he even really registered that he'd gotten up from the table and hurriedly left the shuttle. She had already made quite a bit of distance in the short head-start she'd gotten, but Hanzo – although never quite as fast as his brother – prided himself on his speed and easily caught up to her.

It was as if his body was moving of its own accord, out of instinct rather than the typical deliberate caution he exercised, when he reached out and gently grabbed her shoulder. His fingers brushed the soft spot between the nape of her neck and her collarbone and he immediately withdrew his fingers, but as Harley turned around he was acutely aware of the goosebumps that came up on her skin. He swallowed hard and clenched his hands into fists as her eyes met his.

"Are you alright?" Hanzo felt like the voice coming out of his mouth wasn't even his own. He was being driven by a force stronger than his own willpower; he needed to be near her, needed to make contact. Every ounce of anger melted away from him when he smelled the sweet scent of her hair. It was a bizarre feeling for him – _although almost every feeling I have around Harley is unusual_ , he mused – and felt almost like an out-of-body experience combined with the adrenaline rush of leaping off a rooftop and not being entirely sure he would be able to reach the next one. He tried to collect himself, take a deep breath, but the air wouldn't enter his lungs. The regular, stiff, cold Hanzo was no longer present, giving way for an excitable and curious new man that was terrifying and wonderful all at once. Hanzo could hear his blood rushing in his ears. They were alone in the garden, surrounded by a rainbow of flowers and shaded by ancient trees that hung low around their heads.

Harley's lip trembled before she spoke. "I'm fine."

"You can be honest with me," Hanzo tried to keep his own voice level. "You know I will not judge you."

The white lie felt bitter in his mouth. He _had_ judged her, many times. Just last night he had been judging her behavior in the bathhouse, trying to find every reason to be angry with her so he could figure out how to erase his pain. But deep down, he didn't want to be that way. Not with Harley at least. He knew he had never been an emotionally accessible person but this time, he was willing to try.

"It's nothing," She lied right back, eyes becoming glassy. "I won't bother you."

She took a small step backwards, like she was going to walk away from him again. Desperate to keep that from happening, Hanzo reached for her, catching her elbow with as little force as he could manage. He wasn't trying to pull her, only steady her in front of him.

She didn't try to get away from him, but it was clear she wasn't ready to talk about whatever was bothering her. Hanzo faltered, unsure of the predicament he'd just willingly put himself in the middle of, but knew that if there was one thing he needed to do, it was to get her to smile again. He needed to see her shimmer with the glow of the perfect smile that made his heart flutter every time he saw it – even when it wasn't directed at him.

"Come with me," Hanzo said purposefully, pulling her a little closer. "I want to show you something."

"Where? What is it?"

"You will see," He moved his hand from her elbow to grasp her fingers in his own. "It is something very special to me."

Hanzo lead Harley on a winding path in between all the temples and buildings of the property, walking in silence until they came up to the outermost wall at the very back of Hanamura. He wasted no time getting down on his hands and knees in the long grass that had sprouted up at the wall's base, running his hands along the wood.

"What are you doing?" Harley's voice, still somber but also inquisitive, came from behind him.

"It is a good thing you haven't yet met my brother's mentor," Hanzo replied somewhat fondly, finding his mood being elevated by the minute ever since McCree's departure and the newfound alone time with Harley. "He would kind-heartedly lecture you regarding the importance of patience."

His fingers finally found what they'd been searching for: a long notch in the wood, just big enough to fit four fingertips into. He tugged on the beam and it – along with the three below it – toppled out of the wall to make a hole to the other side of the wall. At the time he and Genji had made the secret passage they made it only large enough to fit a child, but over the course of several years Genji had worked on expanding it to accommodate his growing body. Hanzo had stopped using it when he was about twelve and now he furrowed his eyebrows, concerned that while Genji's slender teenage form had fit through the hole, his much broader frame may not. As for Harley, she seemed to perk right up upon seeing the entrance.

"Where does that go?"

"Somewhere very special," Hanzo pulled on the adjacent beam to widen the opening. Fortunately the nails came apart from the old wood easily enough and he was able to get two more boards out.

Harley crouched down beside him in the grass. "That looks big enough."

"I'll go first," Without waiting for her to confirm, Hanzo wriggled his way through the opening and came out on the cliff face on the other side.

The hilltop was patchy with dried grass and earth; not exactly the lush green place of fantasies he'd remembered. The cliff, however, remained exactly the same, having not aged a day since he was a child: marbled white and brown rocks forming a jagged edge all the way down to a calm river that ran below it. Today the water was like glass, smooth and clear. The smell of the grass and dirt and still water yanked him back through time, to childhood, sitting up here with Genji to escape their father's wrath whenever he'd have a bad day. Unfortunately the pleasant feeling of nostalgia was quickly replaced with the ache of regret as he thought of the many years as a teenager he'd refused to join his brother on the cliff, thinking him foolish and juvenile. _How wrong I was_.

"Oh my god," Harley's voice came from behind him, and he turned just in time to see her easily slip through the gap in the wall and stand up next to him. "It's beautiful…"

"My brother and I came here often as children," Hanzo explained, seating himself on the browning grass. "We grew up in a cage. Prodded with sticks like fighting dogs to make us tough and merciless. Genji took less to that lifestyle than I did. If I am honest… it is very likely I may never have even bothered looking at the world outside the cage if it were not for him."

Harley sat down next to him, much closer than he expected. The breeze carried the smell of her hair into his nostrils and he breathed deeply, hoping she would only think him smelling the fresh air. When he glanced over, she didn't seem to notice. Rather, she was staring at her feet, knees tucked up under her chin. She looked so small, so fragile, like when she'd explained her sister's death to him in Dorado. A tiny precious thing to be looked after. Without really meaning to, Hanzo set his hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. She lifted her head in a sort of listless way, giving him an obviously-forced half-smile.

"Would you like to tell me what happened?" He ventured, voice quiet.

Harley looked into the distance. "I…"

"You don't have to," He hurriedly rambled, removing his hand from her shoulder in the process, trying to keep calm. "I simply meant to say that if you would like to discuss it, I will listen. After all, you are away from prying eyes and invasive ears. Genji and I would unburden ourselves of every secret and complaint here. It is a safe place."

"It's not that I don't want to," She murmured. "It's just… don't you think it would be weird?"

"Weird?"

"Well… I mean… after last night… what you saw…"

"Oh."

"Honestly I didn't think you'd ever be able to look me straight in the face again," She looked at him sideways. "And yet here you are, bringing me to this beautiful spot, all ready to listen to whatever's on my mind. Why?"

Hanzo inclined his head at her, confused. "Why? Why what?"

"You know what I mean, please don't make me say it."

"I can assure you I do not…"

"Hanzo," Her voice was firm, powerful; it sent shivers down Hanzo's spine. "You do know. You know just as well as I do that there's something here. Plausible deniability went out the window after Dorado. You have to admit that was more than just a mission for us."

He met her gaze sharply. Her eyes were bright and alert without a trace of tears, shimmering with something Hanzo wanted to believe was true but couldn't even fathom at the same time. He opened his mouth to speak and closed it again when she laughed softly. It was a knowing laugh, like she'd just told him the most obvious thing in the entire world. And then, suddenly, she looked sad again, and her eyes broke away from his to look out into the horizon. Hanzo felt lonely in that moment.

"It was like someone pried my eyes wide open when we were locked in that little room," She continued, for which Hanzo was grateful, since he had no idea what to say. "It was like I had only seen a shell of the person, and then I was able to see all of you. The soul that I felt this immensely deep connection with… the person who I spilled my guts to about my sister, someone I never talk about, in an incident I've spent most of my life trying to forget… You made it painless. It didn't hurt so much when I told you. You understood. And above all, you held me. You held me together in a moment when I could have so easily fallen apart. Not just anyone can do that. Especially with me."

"I am all too familiar with a haunted past…" Hanzo replied with a nod, trying desperately to keep the conversation away from the only thing he wanted to talk about.

"You didn't try to be anything to me."

"What?"

"You didn't try to be anything to me," She repeated. "Especially in Dorado, when I was vulnerable. You did nothing but support me in a crisis; do you know how rare that is? And even before then, you didn't try to charm me, or touch me, or even flirt with me in spite of the clear connection."

"Was it so clear…?"

"I mean, not always, but certainly in some of those training sessions, and during Dorado…"

"Then why," Hanzo started, noticed his voice sounded aggressive, and stopped. "Never mind. Please continue your thought."

"Then why McCree?"

"No, I…"

"It's okay," Her voice was barely more than a whisper. "If I thought I could invent an explanation that fully justified all of my actions… well, I still don't know if I could give it you, because I don't want to be dishonest with someone who has given me such a feeling of freedom to be honest."

Hanzo looked away from her, shaking his head once sharply in a vain attempt to keep his own emotions from bubbling too close to the surface. Her words were so gentle, so kind, so completely raw with the truth. And even though in some ways he didn't really want to know why she'd chosen to be with McCree, a bigger part of him knew that he needed to let her tell him. Not just so he'd understand, but so that she could clear her mind.

"So…" He ventured, carefully, eyes still averted. "Is there a reason, other than one you'd invent?"

"You really want to know?"

"Yes."

"What if you don't like the answer?"

Hanzo let out a small sigh. "I have made many mistakes over the course of my life; I have acted like a fool. And now, as I approach middle age, I can say with absolutely certainty that I have finally learned that one must not necessarily have to like something in order for it to be good to hear."

"Fair enough," Harley's voice was still much quieter than usual. "I'll do my best to explain."

In his peripheral vision, Hanzo could see her take a deep breath: her chest lifted up, her shoulders went back, her head tilted towards the sky. They were sitting close enough together that he could identify that her eyes were closed. She was like a living portrait against the sky, orange hair dancing around her pale face in the breeze. He almost lost his breath when he couldn't help but turn his head to get a better look. _She's just… perfection_.

"The real, honest answer to 'why McCree' is painfully simple," Harley unbent her legs, stretching them almost to the cliff's edge. "And that answer is that he was simple. Not stupid, I don't mean simple like that. I mean that he was uncomplicated. There was a connection but it was superficial at best: all sweet talk and tender touches. And don't get me wrong, he's a wonderful person, but there just wasn't a deep enough, binding enough connection for it to become something more."

Hanzo felt a familiar pain in his chest. It was a similar pain to the one he'd felt when he caught them kissing, but this was more a pain of frustration. He'd spent so much time worrying about something that was apparently totally inconsequential to her?

"Please don't look at me like that," She pleaded in a pained tone. "I told you that you wouldn't like the answer."

"I-I did not…" Hanzo stammered, unaware he had been giving her any look but guessing his face had betrayed his train of thought. "Forgive me. Please continue."

"I read about all of you, you know, before I got posted at Hanamura. I did as much research as they would allow between trying to keep my powers stable and training me to be an agent. And I'll be honest, there probably wasn't a girl at the academy who wouldn't admit to having a crush on Jesse McCree. He's just got that look to him. Sorry. Anyway, I read up on his past, I saw the mug shots of him at seventeen grinning into the camera and the updated Overwatch personnel file pictures of him smoldering under a cowboy hat. To be even more honest, I thought he was kind of cheesy-looking at first. But when we met, he just had this air about him. Like I said, uncomplicated. No matter what his past held he was able to crack jokes and call me pet names at smile at me like I was the only person in the world. And that was appealing, you know?"

"I am not sure how to answer that."

"It was rhetorical," She gave him a half-smile. "The point is, when I got here I felt like I was one big mistake. The first person I met after Winston was you, and I'm sure we both remember how that went."

Hanzo winced, the image of him yelling at her fresh in his mind as if it had happened mere seconds ago. He felt wracked with guilt even more so now, burdened with the knowledge that it was all due to the chip in her brain. Unable to conjure the right words and feeling like another 'sorry' couldn't possibly be enough, he simply stared back at her with remorse in his eyes.

"Don't worry, I don't blame you. But now can you understand why I would gravitate to someone like Jesse? You, like me, were so clearly still tormented by your past that it had hardened you into a person I didn't think I could reach. Even though your brother ended up living you had still not gotten past what you had done. And well, I admit that I wanted to give up the plan I had when I first found out I was being posted here."

"Plan?"

"When I read your file at the academy, and when they told me the little bit of information about how you were redeeming yourself through Overwatch, I was scared, and also excited. I wanted to talk to you about how you overcame your mistakes. And then we met, and I was angry with myself because I thought I had ruined my opportunity to get close to the only person who could ever understand me and the suffering I live with. I know I can't move past it alone and I thought that maybe, just maybe, if I could work with someone going through the same thing, we could lean on each other enough to get through it all. But… you were… harsh. I could see that your cold exterior was coming from within you and frankly I thought that if I could barely manage to hold myself together, how could I possibly put enough work in to get through that hard exterior you put up to block others out? So I went to someone who invited me with open arms. Someone who only had to wink and nod and call me 'sweetheart' to make me feel like maybe I was a person worth saving. I never used to feel that way."

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, soft, but certainly loud enough for her to hear. "I should have made you feel that way."

"What?"

"I…" Hanzo clasped his hands together to keep them from trembling. "I should have been the one to make you feel as though you were worth saving. Of course you are worth saving."

"And maybe you could have, if I hadn't been so stupid," Tears streamed down Harley's face, leaving trails of salt on her milky cheeks. "I ruined every chance I had to get close to you by chasing something I should have known would never amount to anything. I mean, I liked Jesse well enough; he was comforting and validating but there was always something hollow about the relationship to me. I don't know if he realized it or not, but after last night, I'm guessing not."

"What are you talking about?"

"Like I said before, the connection you and I had started becoming clearer and clearer with every moment we were alone. But we bounced between confusing tender moments and cold shoulders because I couldn't break away from what was easy, instead of what was right."

"What was… right?" Hanzo repeated the words back to her, hearing them echo in his head like he'd shouted them into an empty room.

"I wanted to tell you after Dorado. Right when we landed."

"But you…"

"I know what I did. I'm not proud."

"But why…"

"I told you, it was simple," She sighed. "A wink, a smile, a tip of the hat was all it took for me to freak out about confronting any kind of real feelings and just go with what was already there. What already sort of worked. Though obviously…"

"Wait," Hanzo was the one to interrupt this time. "Tell me what exactly?"

Without speaking, Harley moved her hand from its place in her lap and grabbed the hand he was leaning on, causing Hanzo's body to lean towards her as he readjusted his balance. Their faces were inches apart; he could feel her breath on his lips and see his own reflection in her shining eyes. They were both very still. For all his experience, for his age, for everything he had ever gone through in his life and everything he had ever wanted to do, Hanzo couldn't make himself close the gap. Instead, he asked a question he knew was probably not suited for the mood, but one that he still needed to know the answer to.

Without moving away, he asked her, "What happened last night?"

"Between Jesse and I?"

"Yes."

"Well," Harley leaned a little closer, so close that when she spoke her lips practically brushed against his. "After the… incident… in the bath house, I was so embarrassed I could barely think straight. I went straight back to my own room. But when my head cleared I began to realize that even though running back to Jesse straight after Dorado was easy and comfortable it wasn't real. I didn't want easy and comfortable anymore. I wanted to heal the wounds, not just patch them. I wanted to be able to be open and honest and completely and only myself. And I just wasn't that with Jesse."

"I see."

"So after realizing that…" Harley closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against his. "It made me think about if I'd ever been that way with anyone. And, since my sister died, there was only one person who I really felt that way with."

Before Hanzo could ask if she was saying what he thought she was saying, before he could swallow the lump in his throat or try to take a deep breath to calm his thudding heart, before he could even really register just how close their bodies really were, Harley pressed her mouth against his. He was so startled by the action that he practically pulled away. His eyes were still wide open and he wasn't even really kissing her back for a few seconds, just long enough that she started to lean back before he put his free hand behind her neck and pulled her into the most passionate kiss he could summon from the very bottom of his being. She responded by wrapping both arms around his neck and opening her mouth just enough so that their tongues could meet for the first time. Hanzo tasted her and thought about how if someone struck him down in this very moment he would die willingly in her arms because no moment in his life had ever felt so good, so painless, so completely right.

When they separated to catch their breath, Hanzo thought he must look ridiculous; he was smiling like an idiot and most likely red in the face. Fortunately for him Harley was also flushed and grinning, so at least they were on the same page.

"Wow," She said after a few seconds of silence. "That was…"

"Overdue," Hanzo finished for her. "So, I take this to mean that you and Jesse are…"

"Finished," She nodded. "I went to his room in the middle of the night and told him it was over. I think he took it harder than even he expected. Maybe he really did like me. Maybe it was real for him. And I felt awful doing it. But I couldn't keep it going any longer, not when you were right there. Not when I felt the way I do about you."

Hanzo wanted to ask her so many more questions but his head was still swimming from the kiss and he couldn't think of an appropriate way to phrase any of them. In that moment he wished she spoke Japanese so that he could speak freely without carefully choosing his words. Even though he'd learned English at a fairly young age, Japanese always felt more natural to him, especially when expressing emotions.

"Aren't you going to ask me how I feel about you?" Harley asked playfully, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"To be perfectly honest," Hanzo replied, trying to keep as straight a face as possible. "The only thing I am really thinking about is when I can kiss you again."

Harley arranged herself into a kneeling position, facing him. "How about now?"


End file.
